This, all day long. I think it nefarious that the border and customs authority have themselves created a legal fiction that 'the laws of the US don't apply to them, because you're not in the US yet.'

If that location is still not the US, then they also have no authority to enforce US regulations in that place... "you cannot have your cake and eat it" is the applicable condition.

If those officers seized devices in order to search them, the owner is under no obligation to facilitate a warrantless search, no matter how fervently the department promotes it's self serving rearrangement of the Constitution.

If the owner of the phone had wiped the device, on the plane or before takeoff would there be any presumption of guilt? No. And there is still no presumption of guilt.

One cannot be charged with destruction of evidence if there is no evidence that the evidence existed, and there is no basis for the current 'habit' or 'policy' of searching any device that they decide to because they have wished this to be legal.

If the person is a foreign national requesting permission for entry, there may be a basis for 'allow us or we don't have to let you in', but in the case of a US citizen, to be refused the right of free travel within the US, is simply wrong.

Shrieking "Think of the Childern" or any other vilification doesn't change what is right.

That being said; since the ones at the border aren't currently accountable to anyone but themselves, the solution is to wipe everything before transit, and reinstall and restore the data on the other side.

> If he was smart enough to let the agents type in the pin themselves then they're the ones who wiped the phone, not him

There are interesting legal and ethical questions involved here. But this argument is silly to the point of making the entire case look silly.

its a catch22, if your phone looks too sterile, it will be considered suspicious.

you need to keep some salacious texts, maybe some mooning pix, and a shortcut to [chunkybutz.net] so it isnt untypicaly clean.