Immigration advocate sues US government over warrantless phone search at the border

An Argentinian-American writer and immigration advocate has sued the US federal government, demanding that it delete data he believes was copied off his phone when he re-entered the country earlier this month.

What happened at Miami International Airport

According to the seven-page complaint, a Customs and Border Protection agent at Miami International Airport physically searched Thomas Kennedy's bags, questioned him about his books and magazines, and then demanded that he hand over his phone.

Kennedy says the agent threatened him, warning that if he did not give up the phone his interrogation would take much longer and the device could be held indefinitely. "I felt like I had no choice, so I handed my phone to the CBP agent," he wrote. The phone was taken away for roughly 45 minutes, during which Kennedy believes its data was copied. He was then released without charges.

The activist says the phone held sensitive personal and professional information, and he now wants a court to order the data deleted. He works with several nonprofit groups, including the Florida Immigration Coalition, Amnesty International and the Community Justice Project. Kennedy believes he was targeted for that work: he was repeatedly asked what he did for a living and whether he was an immigration attorney.

"I believe CBP flagged me because of my organizing and political work around immigrants' rights in Florida," he wrote in the filing. "In 2021, after speaking out against Governor Ron DeSantis, the Miami Police were surveilling me and barring me from press conferences."

The border search exemption

US federal courts have long recognised a "border exception" to the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, under which people, bags and electronic devices can be searched without a warrant. CBP says it may copy device data if there is probable cause to believe it holds evidence of a violation of law, or if it relates to immigration, customs or other enforcement matters.

CBP says such searches are very rare. In fiscal year 2025 it processed more than 419 million travellers at ports of entry but searched the electronic devices of only 55,318 international travellers, or 0.0013% of them.

Why it matters

Kennedy's case is a reminder that at the border a phone remains an easily accessible source of personal data. A similar episode was reported at San Francisco Airport in 2017.

"CBP shouldn't have been able to confiscate my phone, let alone copy its contents," Kennedy wrote in the complaint. "I believe they did so to suppress my political speech."

The case was first reported by the Miami New Times.