Border agents can’t search cellphones of NYC visitors without a warrant, court rules

A federal court has ruled that United States border agents cannot search cellphones without warrants in the Eastern District of New York. The decision applies to both US citizens and international visitors entering the region, which includes New York City, the most-visited site by overseas travelers.

The case stems from a 2022 incident in which border agents manually searched the phone of a man named Kurbonali Sultanov at JFK Airport in New York. He initially refused and then handed over the device once agents said he had no choice. The phone was later searched more thoroughly with a warrant, but Sultanov moved to suppress evidence obtained during the initial search, claiming it violated his rights.

Civil liberties groups backed the motion. “As the court recognizes, warrantless searches of electronic devices at the border are an unjustified intrusion into travelers’ private expressions, personal associations, and journalistic endeavors — activities the First and Fourth Amendments were designed to protect,” said Scott Wilkens, senior counsel at the Knight First Amendment Institute. The court didn’t dismiss the evidence, however, claiming the border agents acted in good faith.

The debate over whether border control agents can search electronic devices has raged for years. In 2017, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of 11 individuals who had their phones searched at the border.