Comment by refurb
15 hours ago
A far better approach is for the US citizen to simply say "I chose not to provide my PIN".
The officer will say something like "That's your choice, but I will need to seize the device to conduct an analysis. It will be returned once the analysis is complete".
Then you shrug, and they will let you enter the US. The cops will try to get into the phone, fail, and return it to you.
Just bring a phone you don't mind losing for a few months.
You shouldn't count on the phone ever being returned to you, at least not in working order. Otherwise, yeah.
This person was under "investigation" for protesting against cop city. The authorities were waiting for him to turn up at a place where the law would give them more power.
They were never going to let him just walk in. Eventually, they'd have to, possibly after lawyers and news would get involved, but it's not like saying "no" was going to end the ordeal right away.
Maybe, but being detained for a couple hours is better than committing a felony, no?
It depends on how "native" you look perhaps, but you can be detained for more than a week and a half if the border authorities don't like you: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/20/us-citizen-j...
Of course they shouldn't do that to US citizens, but they also shouldn't be targetting protestors they have a personal gripe with.
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A couple of hours sounds like you don't have any knowledge of how these things go.
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