this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2026
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Privacy
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I turn off biometrics and power down. They can ask for the unlock pin, I can decline until they produce a warrant and I can request an lawyer. My risk profile is sufficiently accommodated.
I can see someone with a different risk profile, say, an online presence showing vocal criticism against Trump and goons, and/or not white and/or not a native born US citizen and/or has a travel history to muslim-majority countries might want to take further measures.
I've just skimmed headlines and seen a short or two on the guy who gave LEOs the distress pin. I'm not sure why he didn't decline to give them his pin until they produced a warrant, but I think giving a destruction pin was not the brightest idea. But also, fuck the cops and double fuck border cops playing these racist, fascist games with people's lives.
I mean thats what its for. Maybe, like playing dead, he thought they'd get tired of fucking with him. Also, all of that seems like a hassle when you have the distress pin right there. And prior to this, no hint at the potential consequences. Also, you just want to go home at this point. Its been a little while since I read about it, but I think they said you can give us the pin or we will crack it with XYZ software (idk what its named). So there's a risk at that point if you think it might work. Idk, I'm not going to judge the dude.
Also they were saying that normal rules didn't apply at a border. No request for lawyer, no need for warrant.
Yeah, and call it my middle class white American audacity but I'd be willing to go toe to toe with them on that BS for quite some time. I'd be focused on keeping control and being the most pristine accuser in a civil rights lawsuit that there ever was.
I'm read up enough on US Borders and customs policy to know them confiscating and hooking up my phone to a laptop to try to crack my password is a different thing than manipulating me into volunteering my pin. That's what they're trying to do, pressure people into "voluntarily" giving their pin, which gets the cops off the hook for following their protocol for conducting searches within their more restrictive rules for cracking into a device. Same as letting them in the front door of my house, if a person "voluntarily" lets cops into their house when the cops apply pressure, the homeowner has allowed them out of all the rules and oversight that come with getting a warrant.
I think you're right, it is important for people to know their rights, but also understand that these people are making it up as they go.
In the activist example, they claimed they had evidence he had child pornography. Do they even have to find anything real to fuck up your day if they want to?
Here's an important point from the activist distress code case: CBP had a plan to target him for this treatment in advance before he showed up at the border checkpoint that day. The airlines send them passenger manifests 72 hours in advance.
100% of the time, if they take you to the little room, start asking you questions, and want to look through your phone, they already believe you're guilty of something specific.
If that happens to you, you need to understand that you have already been the "target" of an investigation. There is nothing you can do or say in that room that will convince them otherwise. The best thing you can do is shut the hell up, do as little as possible, and don't make their case for them.
And don't believe anything they're telling you either. The cops can lie to you, but you can't lie to the cops. It's a crime.