In a scene generally more associated with authoritarian regimes like North Korea than with democratic America, a French scientist was recently denied entry to the United States based on his opinion of President Donald Trump.
The scientist was working for France’s National Centre for Scientific Research and had been travelling to a conference when border officials stopped him.
Exactly why he was stopped isn’t clear, but his phone was searched and, on finding messages which expressed his opinion of Trump and his policies, the scientist was denied entry and deported.
This may have implications for practitioners travelling to the United States.
Legaltech news, a publication which focuses on technology issues within the legal profession, quoted Bo Cooper, head of law firm Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy as noting: “The Trump administration is reaching to, and exploring, the limits of its authority to search phones, laptops, tablets, and other similar devices”.
The Trump administration has been focused on the legal profession and may target lawyers at border crossings and other opportunities, according to some US lawyers.
In view of this, practitioners travelling to the US may need to consider taking precautions such as removing privileged information from all devices and scrubbing social media apps from them.
It is important to note that US border officials can search electronic devices without any grounds, reasonable or otherwise, and can demand passwords on pain of detention. That means that even a practitioner’s digital footprint could come under scrutiny, and entry be denied over a Facebook post critical of President Trump.
The bottom line is when travelling to the US, take a clean device, store sensitive information in the cloud, access it remotely, and maybe clean up your social media before buying your tickets. In the US, it seems, lese-majesty is back in the books.
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