As new data shows a record number of electronic devices being inspected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), CTV Your Morning asked an immigration lawyer what Canadians’ rights are if they’re travelling to the United States.
“You have to show them the phone, but there are certain things you can do to limit your exposure,” said Stuart Friedman, a lawyer in South Bend, Ind., in an interview Thursday.
Friedman said anyone with privileged information — such as a doctor or a lawyer — should carry proof of that and “assert that privilege right off.”
Aside from those exceptions, he said there isn’t much protection for the average Canadian against a “manual search” at a land border, which is when a border agent will “thumb through” your phone, for example.
Travellers do have rights against an “advanced search,” Friedman said, meaning a more thorough search of your phone, without “reasonable suspicion.”
Password-protected devices, folders and apps are also fair game, he said, and anyone hoping to withhold their password from a border agent would have to “litigate that issue.”
CBP agents, Friedman also said, are allowed to seize any device for the sake of further inspection, up to five days “without additional authorization.”
Friedman’s comments come amid new data from CBP showing agents searched nearly 15,000 electronic devices between April and June of this year, a record high. Among those, 1,075 were “advanced searches.”
It’s a jump from the 12,260 searches — 966 of them advanced — carried out in the previous quarter, as well as from the previous record, with 12,766 searches reported in the first three months of 2022.
Still, device searches remain a small fraction of the overall number of border crossings, according to CBP. The agency reported that of the 420 million travellers processed at ports of entry in 2024, only 47,047 had their electronic devices searched, representing less than 0.01 per cent of all international travellers arriving in the United States.
Friedman said a U.S. border agent could likely justify a social media scan, though there’s a gray area about what to do with any political posts, as their job is to look for “active dangers to the United States.”
For example, he said, posts or comments that are antagonistic toward U.S. President Donald Trump likely wouldn’t be considered grounds to deny someone entry to the country.
“Where it becomes even trickier, though, is on certain political issues where they can make some argument about a national security basis,” Friedman said. “So, the distinction between supporting Palestinians and being in favour of Hamas can be a very fine line in the hands of somebody who wants to see a problem.”
The increase in device searches comes amid Trump’s implementation of a more widespread border crackdown, which began shortly after he moved back into the White House. It also comes several months into a protracted trade war between Canada and the U.S., which began in February when Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods, he said as a means to address border concerns.
Advocacy groups concerned about Canadian border bill
Several Canadian advocacy groups, meanwhile, have been voicing concerns that the federal government’s border security bill could grant law enforcement sweeping powers to surveil Canadians and invade their privacy.
The 139-page Bill C-2 — dubbed the Strong Borders Act by the Liberals — was put forward by Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree in June, largely aimed at addressing Trump’s border security concerns.
Some advocates are warning, however, that the border bill has larger privacy implications, and weakens protections against law enforcement going too far.
The bill was at second reading in the House of Commons before MPs broke for the summer hiatus. Any other progress on the bill will have to wait until the House resumes in mid-September.
