Border agents inspect 52,080 traveler devices in nine months

U.S. border officers searched 52,080 electronic devices from travelers between October 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026. This total marks a 32 percent jump over the same period in the previous fiscal year, when agents inspected 39,251 devices. The current pace is closing in on the record 55,424 searches conducted in all of fiscal 2025.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data obtained by CBC News show that 47,517 of these inspections were basic searches. Officers can perform these checks without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. The remaining 4,564 were advanced searches, which allow agents with reasonable suspicion of unlawful activity or national security concerns to analyze or copy device contents.

Jessica Turner, a CBP public affairs officer, stated that these numbers are consistent with trends since 2021. She noted that only 0.01 percent of the 419 million travelers who entered the country in 2025 had their devices searched. Turner said the searches aim to detect digital contraband, terrorism-related content, and information relevant to admissibility.

CBP declined to provide a breakdown of where the searches occurred. The agency did not specify how many took place at the Canadian border versus the Mexican border, or how they split between airports and land crossings. It also withheld data on how many searches involved U.S. citizens compared to non-citizens. These details are typically included in annual reports.

Esha Bhandari, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, said the rise calls for more congressional oversight. She noted that it is difficult to speculate on the reasons for the increase because the government does not explain it. Bhandari argued that when the government holds a power, it tends to use it to the detriment of travelers' privacy.

Bhandari said the aggregate data makes it hard to understand what is happening. She described the anecdotes her group hears as certainly troubling, including travelers being asked about political opinions, writing, or religious practice. She suggested the increase may reflect advances in technology and the failure of federal courts to limit the government's authority.

In January, CBP updated its guidelines to include flash drives, SIM cards, GPS systems, unmanned aircraft systems, vehicle infotainment systems, and smart watches. The update also added smuggling of narcotics, firearms, transnational theft of proprietary information, and digital contraband to the list of crimes the searches are meant to detect. Bhandari said these changes altered only a few procedures at the margins.

Laura Dawson, executive director of the Future Borders Coalition, said the increase is hard to judge without knowing where the searches occurred and how many people crossed. She pointed to the World Cup earlier this year, which may have brought a more diverse mix of visitors. She also cited greater focus on border security and closer cooperation between Canadian and U.S. border services.

Dawson noted that having more scrutiny at the border is actually a positive in many ways. She said device searches remain rare despite alarming stories on social media. By her figures, one in 9,000 crossings leads to a U.S. inspection, while one in 14,000 crossings leads to a search on the Canadian side. Canadian officials have searched a much smaller share of devices than their U.S. counterparts in recent years, and those numbers have been falling.