Lawsuit seeks data over searches of electronics at US border
Source: Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Mar 27, 2017, 5:15 PM ET
A group of First Amendment attorneys sued the Trump administration on Monday over access to data showing how often U.S. citizens and visitors had their electronic devices searched and the contents catalogued at American border crossings.
The complaint by Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute said the Department of Homeland Security hasn't moved quickly on its request, which sought information about the number of people whose devices were searched at the border, complaints about the practice and government training materials.
The lawsuit marks an early challenge under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act for President Donald Trump, who has pushed for an aggressive border-security policy and tried twice to enact temporary travel restrictions from several majority-Muslim countries. Federal courts have so far stymied those efforts.
The Knight Institute had asked for a detailed number of travelers whose electronic devices, such as cell phones and computers, were searched and how often their data were shared. It also sought a breakdown of those device seizures by race, ethnicity, nationality and citizenship status, as well as details from a government database that tracks device searches.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/lawsuit-seeks-data-searches-electronics-us-border-46405150
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