Sponsors (5)
The bill trades substantially stronger privacy protections, transparency, and procedural safeguards for travelers' digital data at the border against increased burdens, potential operational delays, and reduced investigatory access for law enforcement and border-security agencies.
U.S. persons traveling across U.S. borders are far less likely to have the contents of their phones, laptops, or cloud accounts searched or used against them absent a probable-cause warrant, strengthening privacy protections for travelers and residents of border communities.
Travelers cannot be denied entry/exit for refusing to disclose passwords, detention for digital-access requests is limited (e.g., 4-hour cap), and the bill creates audit/accountability and notice/destruction rules—improving due process and reducing misuse risks.
Clearer statutory definitions (e.g., what counts as electronic communication service, remote computing service, and access credentials including biometrics) reduce ambiguity for agencies, courts, and regulated firms, improving consistency across investigations and prosecutions.
Law enforcement and border-security agencies will have reduced ability to quickly access device and account contents at ports of entry, which could hinder criminal investigations and national-security threat response.
Requiring warrants, expanded recordkeeping, and annual reporting will increase administrative costs and staffing burdens for DHS and other agencies, raising costs for taxpayers and potentially slowing operations.
New procedures and warrant requirements may produce traveler delays, confusion at ports of entry, and temporary loss or seizure of devices (including a 7-day warrant window or seizure when probable cause of a felony exists), disrupting travel, personal, and business activities.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Introduced April 2, 2025 by Ted Lieu · Last progress April 2, 2025
Requires federal agents at U.S. borders to get a probable-cause warrant under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure before accessing the digital contents of electronic devices or online accounts of United States persons, except for narrowly defined emergencies and routine external device inspections; limits device seizures to cases with probable cause of felony-related evidence; mandates written informed consent when used; caps device-related detention for consent requests; creates an exclusionary rule barring evidence obtained in violation of the law; and requires annual public reporting by DHS on border digital searches and accesses.