At airports and land borders across the country, tourists and other visitors who come to the USA reports that they were involved in the Trump administration campaign for “extended review”. Even legal immigrants such as Green Card owner and naturalized citizens were pulled aside for additional surveys and searches.
This has triggered questions about best practices for the crossing to the United States, the rights of travelers at the border and the legality of the device and luggage search.
Here are some things to know before visiting the United States as a tourist, legal residents or citizens.
Are you a visitor with a visa or ESTA? It should match your travel plans.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, US border officers have a “far-reaching discretion” to refuse admission. This decision can be made on the basis of the suspicion that the person penetrates the country for another purpose than the visa or its electronic system for travel (ESTA) – for example a tourist visa, but it seems as if they may be planning work.
“We have seen that people are only imprisoned because of LinkedIn that they are open to work,” said Michael Wildes, who was dealing with Melania Trump’s immigration to the United States in New Jersey. “This serves as proof that you not only go to Disneyland or to a wedding.”
Cheryl David, an immigration lawyer in New York City, emphasized that no rules for entry into the United States had changed, but she said there is now a clear “zero tolerance policy”.
This year, Becky Burke’s family, a 28-year-old British tourist, said that she was stopped on the US border in the state of Washington on the way to a trip to exchange, where she wanted to exchange homework for free accommodations. While no money was changed to the owner, these arrangements could still be seen as work, which would violate the conditions of a tourist visa. Ms. Burke was arrested for 19 days before she was deported to Great Britain.
While it is rare to capture potential tourists, deportations are not due to incorrect travel documentation.
Even the citizens should prepare for additional demonstration.
If questions about the travel documents of the passengers arise, border officials can pull them out of the line and submit them to additional screening. At this point, luggage and electronic devices such as laptops and mobile phones can be searched.
Even green card holders and naturalized citizens can be subject to more screening.
US citizens and lawful constant residents cannot be refused to enter the country because they refused to hand over their devices, but such a rejection could still lead to a longer customs process, said the ACLU.
Catherine, 67, a natural citizen who moved to the United States 45 years ago said she had never been selected for additional surveys in the immigration, but since the beginning of the Trump administration she has been stopped twice for reasons that remain unclear to her. Catherine asked to be only identified her second first name because she fears that her naturalized status can be revoked for pronouncing.
Most recently, Catherine returned from Argentina when she and her husband were stopped at an airport in Dallas. The Border Control was automated there, scanning passengers to get through goals, but when it was time to take a photo, a large red X flashed for Catherine on the screen. Her husband spoke to border officials and the couple finally came through.
The social media, text chats and other history of travelers on their devices can be searched.
Since the border control exists technically outside of the United States, travelers with visas or those with ESTAs have a limited opportunity to attribute your electronic devices to the search, and if this is the case, you risk refusing.
There are generally two types of search queries of an electronic device: manually and advanced, said Tom McBrien, a lawyer of the electronic data protection information center, a non -profit organization on the Internet in Washington. A unlocked phone is looked through for manual search queries. The courts generally considered this to be equivalent to go through the luggage and made manual searches possible without receiving an arrest warrant, said McBrien.
An advanced or “forensic” search includes connecting an external device to your phone to scan the content. Some federal districts require an arrest warrant, while others do not do this, said McBrien.
Mr. McBrien and other data protection experts recommend deleting something that you do not want to read or see from your device before you arrive.
Mr. McBrien also said that he recommends that his customers deactivate the Feats -ID functions for the face or touch -id on their iPhones, so that more than one civil servant wings a phone in front of his face or put his finger on it to open it. Even better, he said, it was to switch off your phone before going through the border control, as telephones need your full pass code when you are switched on again.
If you refuse to ask your phone, the authorities can confiscate it and most likely have to receive an arrest warrant to open it, he added. However, visitors can be refused to enter the United States because they have refused to unlock their phone.
Mr. Wildes, who is based in New Jersey, said that the main thing for border patrol officials was the consistency.
If a forensic search shows a deactivated social media account, civil servants can ask that they are reactivated, said Wildes. If an e -mail account has recently been deleted, you can apply to access it.
Social media had become an important topic, he added, for “so many people who do not recognize how it can be implemented.”
Ms. David, the lawyer of immigration, remembered a client with a student visa who was refused to enter the United States during the bid administration because he had photos of him, who posed with weapons, interpreted officials as a threat to the United States, she said.
The best thing to do was Mr. Wildes to be honest and to be aware of the laws.
If you get into difficulties at the border, the best step for visitors could be to withdraw your intention to enter the United States. In most cases you can return to your home country.
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(Tagstotranslate) US politics and government
