According to this breaking story from Wired, the Department of Homeland Security's 'Watchdog' has given the OK for the 'suspicionless' seizure of electronic devices along the borders of America. According to the map below from the ACLU, this includes a 100 mile perimeter along the entire border of the United States of America. First, read this from Wired then take a look at the ACLU map below. Are you living in the 'no longer free' zone? If so, join the crowd. Hundreds of millions of Americans, 2 out of every 3 of us, live within this new 'Constitution-free' zone where our 4th Amendment no longer applies. This includes most people living along both the East and West coasts of the country, the entire states of Florida, Michigan and Hawaii and most of the states of California, New York, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Louisiana and more. Much more.:
The Department of Homeland Security’s civil rights watchdog has concluded that travelers along the nation’s borders may have their electronics seized and the contents of those devices examined for any reason whatsoever — all in the name of national security.
The DHS, which secures the nation’s border, in 2009 announced that it would conduct a “Civil Liberties Impact Assessment” of its suspicionless search-and-seizure policy pertaining to electronic devices “within 120 days.” More than three years later, the DHS office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties published a two-page executive summary of its findings.
“We also conclude that imposing a requirement that officers have reasonable suspicion in order to conduct a border search of an electronic device would be operationally harmful without concomitant civil rights/civil liberties benefits,” the executive summary said.
Comments from the story on Wired obviously express what most Americans who give a damn and are at least half 'awake' are thinking:
Tom Berry • a day ago
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Its one thing to be searched crossing the border. Its another to claim a 100 mile "Fourth Amendment Exclusion Zone" My answer is to simply refuse to hand over electronics unless they have a warrant and be sure to record the incident if possible. I never imagined when I was 20 years old that in 30 years the United States would be sliding toward a Orwellian quasi- totalitarian state.
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S. Mays Tom Berry • a day ago
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Sad thing is, 99% of America couldn't care less. The terrorists won, and our government gained everything they could ever wish for, and more.
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