No suspicion necessary: DHS can still seize belongings without reason

RT
Feb 9, 2013

The Fourth Amendment no longer means what you once thought it did: A new report reveals that the government has shrugged off concerns over the alleged constitutional infringements of its own citizens near international crossings.

An internal review of the US Department of Homeland Security’s procedures regarding the suspicionless search-and-seizure of phones and laptops near the nation’s border has reaffirmed the agency’s ability to bypass Fourth Amendment-protected rights [.pdf].

In a two page executive summary published quietly last month to the official DHS website, the agency explains that a civil rights and civil liberties impact assessment of the office’s little-known power to collect personal electronics near international crossings has passed an auditor’s interpretation of what does and doesn’t violate the US Constitution.

Since 2009, the DHS has been legally permitted to seize and review the contents of personal electronic devices, including mobile phones, portable computers and data discs, even without being able to cite any reasonable suspicion that those articles were involved in a crime.

When the initiative was introduced in August 2009 by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, she defended the policy change. “Keeping Americans safe in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully screen materials entering the United States,” the secretary said, adding, “The new directives announced today strike the balance between respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all travelers while ensuring DHS can take the lawful actions necessary to secure our borders.”

In that Aug. 09 announcement, Sec. Napolitano ensured the American public that they had nothing to worry about and that an impact assessment would be conducted within 120 days to eliminate any fears. More than two years later, however, the DHS-led study has only now been released in part, and its findings do little to alleviate the concerns of civil liberty advocates who have held their breath since the early days of the Obama administration, waiting anxiously to hear about the legality of a directive that applies to both Customs and Border Protection agents and officers with theImmigration and Customs Enforcement working under the DHS.

http://www.infowars.com/no-suspicion-necessary-dhs-can-still-seize-belongings-without-reason/

If much of this wasn't true then why do we see organizations fighting for our civil liberties and rights such as the ACLU.  Even they  play a part of  shady paid off group.

Do we really want to live like this,  now everyone gets to feel like a criminal. Take head even some do learn from a one and only arrest on a crime. Lets look at how many mothers have been taken away from their kids because of a drug habit lets say. Who pays the price the children do.  The mom doesn't necessarily have to be a bad mother who might of been on coke, or smoked pot. It is no different than those fathers who come home from a bar every night half crocked now is it.

That doesn't nec. make him a bad person he just caught got and suckered into the FEDS LEGAL booze circle of entrapment.

The only reason the scenario to take peoples belongings during the drug war was so the cops could make a profit for their police stations, they sell off the belongings and keep the money.  Nobody should lose their belongings to a mistake.  Especially if it was a first time crime. Because, once again the kids pay for it in spades. Why should they pay for a mistake.  Things do not become all peachy just because Grandma takes them in while mom does time.  It tears the family apart, and often once the mothers go to a prison setting they have to become desensitized in order to deal with the time.  Often those emotions stay and dont come back.  The bonds have been broken slightly , sometimes permanently.  There can be a million reasons each case is different.

That saying if you cant do the time don't do the crime,  well that isn't going to be so in this century. Because those who say that might be right in the mix over nothing. Those days of not going to jail are over for every American.  It is very easy to get in and almost impossible to get out. So becarel what you say and think because it just might happen to you, your kid, your grand kids, your husband or wife just by simply driving down the road.

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