Sponsors (5)
The bill significantly strengthens privacy and Fourth Amendment protections for digital devices and account data at the border and increases transparency and legal clarity, but it does so at the cost of added administrative burdens, potential evidence exclusion, and reduced immediate operational flexibility for law-enforcement and national-security screening.
Travelers at the border — including U.S. persons, immigrants, and other visitors — generally keep their phones and other device contents protected by a probable-cause warrant rule, meaning agents cannot inspect private digital contents without showing probable cause (and felony-level probable cause to seize devices).
Noncitizens and other individuals are shielded from having unlawfully obtained digital evidence used against them in immigration, criminal, state, or local proceedings, reducing incentives for unlawful searches and protecting due-process rights.
Individuals gain more transparency and accountability because DHS must collect and report how often and under what demographics digital device and account accesses occur, giving Congress, oversight bodies, and the public data to detect abuse or bias.
Border law enforcement and national-security operations may be slowed or hampered — potentially reducing timely detection of contraband, child exploitation material, or imminent threats — because agents must often obtain probable-cause warrants before accessing device contents.
Taxpayers and federal agencies face increased administrative and financial costs as DHS, CBP, and courts handle more warrant applications, training, recordkeeping, destruction/nondisclosure procedures, and public reporting obligations.
Prosecutors, regulators, and immigration authorities may lose access to potentially central digital evidence because unlawfully obtained device or account data would be excluded from proceedings, which could reduce convictions, removals, or enforcement actions.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Requires probable-cause warrants for searching U.S. persons' device or account digital contents at borders, narrows seizures, limits compelled credential disclosure, and mandates DHS reporting.
Official title: To ensure the digital contents of electronic equipment and online accounts belonging to or in the possession of United States persons entering or exiting the United States are adequately protected at the border, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 2, 2025 by Ted Lieu · Last progress April 2, 2025
Prohibits U.S. government officers at international borders from searching or accessing the digital contents of electronic devices or online accounts owned or possessed by United States persons without a probable-cause warrant issued under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. It limits compelled disclosure of passwords/credentials, tightly narrows device seizure to felony-related probable cause, creates a short emergency exception with prompt warrant filing, requires consent notices, mandates destruction/non-disclosure rules for unlawfully accessed data, and requires annual public reporting by DHS about border digital-access activities.