By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Customs and Border Protection officers have demanded that American citizens turn over their phones and passwords in 25 cases examined by NBC News.
The phones are being seized at the border and airports.
A New York couple said it happened to them twice while returning from a trip to Canada. Akram Shibly and his wife Kelly McCormick said Shibly was assaulted by officers to get their phone.
In February, 5,000 phones were searched, which is more than all of the phones searched in 2015. Homeland Security data show that Border Patrol agents searched nearly 25,000 phones in 2016, a five-fold increase over 2015.
NBC wrote:
The travelers came from across the nation, and were both naturalized citizens and people born and raised on American soil. They traveled by plane and by car at different times through different states. Businessmen, couples, senior citizens, and families with young kids, questioned, searched, and detained for hours when they tried to enter or leave the U.S. None were on terror watchlists. One had a speeding ticket. Some were asked about their religion and their ethnic origins, and had the validity of their U.S. citizenship questioned.
What most of them have in common — 23 of the 25 — is that they are Muslim, like Shibly, whose parents are from Syria.
