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Destruction of evidence is incredibly hard to prove in court.
The article is very skimpy on info. It doesn’t give the circumstances of the event or anything beyond who was involved.
Without a warrant, CBP wasn’t entitled to anything on his phone and they can go fuck themselves.
If it was at a point of entry CBP can search electronic devices without a warrant or suspicion, for a brief time (up to 5 days) without probable cause, under the “border search exception”.
A lot of those border exceptions need to be burnt in a fire, like that one, and the whole “you have no civil rights within 100 miles of a point of entry. btw airports count, so almost no where is free from your rights legally being abused kthnxbai”
This is truth. You are a US citizen, and your rights apply anywhere if the authority is a us citizen. What stops them from detaining you, driving you to the border and then performing illegal searches. Nothing. Just because I went on vacation doesn’t mean I forfeited my constitutional rights.
They have the legal right to search a phone before it enters the US, but there is no law that says you can’t wipe your phone first.
They’re shipping people off to places unknown for ‘no law’ too.
Otherwise, simply refuse them passage rather than locking them up and charging them.
It’s cute that you think there are still laws in the US.
They have to charge him with something.
Do they though? Someone should tell all the people in literal concentration camps after receiving no due process
I have a friend in Florida. They have a guy that runs a business and does all their house repairs, fells trees, yada yada. His inlaws turned him in for being illegal (he’s not) He had his paperwork with him and they still shipped him off to Alligator Alcatraz. His wife hired a lawyer and had to do all kinds of crap to get him back out… on bail… because his mother-in-law called him an illegal.
The mother in law needs to be fed to a fucking gator
Says who? How many people are being held in your country without any due process at all?
That increasingly means nothing. Remember that judge who was sending kids to reform camps for kickbacks? Part of that scheme was they literally made up charges. If the system says it’s a charge and you need to be punished then that’s what’s going to happen. Juries aren’t even a thing until you get to major felonies anymore so it’s just whatever the judge lets the prosecutor get away with.
Resisting arrest. Evidence tampering. Obstruction of justice. Take your pick.
I was going to say something along the lines of being charged with anything but your statement is way better and more importantly more accurate.
I wasn’t sure if that applies to non-citizens.
Personally, I think it should, but laws aren’t always just.
Rights must apply to all persons in the US. Or else the government may assign you to the non rights group at it’s discretion. As an example, you’re a citizen. The government says you are not. You try to go to court to prove it, but oops you don’t have that right. Your family opens a court case, but they either get ruled to not have standing or they get swiftly assigned to the non rights group as well.
Nobody has Rights until Everyone has Rights.
According to the Constitution, almost all rights apply equally to citizens and non-citizens. The term used in the Constitution is “persons,” not “citizens.” The Supreme Court has eroded some of those rights over time, though.
According to the Constitution
Can’t read it because of a large orange shitstain across it.
It absolutely does apply to non citizens. However, this administration has been ignoring that.
If anyone is interested in having a feature to wipe your phone, GRAPHENEOS has a duress pin option that will wipe your phone from the lock screen and leave only the OS installed. AFAIK this us only available on Google Pixel devices like the gentleman in the article had.
It’d be fascinating to see how this plays out in the courts.
Technically it’d be the officers themselves performing the wipes, right? Could you say you got the pins mixed up in your head and get away with it?
I think the prosecutor is going to drop the charges because I don’t think he broke a law. So we’ll not find out…
But also, the defendant doesn’t have to prove anything and would probably be wise not to testify in court. If you decide that you’re going to testify at all, then they can ask you a lot of other questions that you probably don’t want to answer. So almost all of the time you should shut the fuck up. :-)
Well, the “free” state of Fl*rida just made it a misdemeanor to cover your license plate with materials that prevent those fucking Flock cameras from scanning it and putting you in a database so they can use the 'ole American warrantless data purchase loophole (a time-worn classic) to sell your location data to law enforcement and other third parties and upgrades the offense to a felony if used to commit another crime which in Florida could be just about anything. They (or any red state shithole) could literally make sneezing a misdemeanor and get away with it at this point while the MAGAts cheer because only the “bad people” sneeze, not them, never. So all the red state legislatures will probably collaborate to whip up some new bullshit laws at suspiciously the same time stating that if a person attempts to wipe their phone while being detained or gives a false self destruct duress pin to an officer it’s now a class a/type 1/highest tier whatever felony with up to a bajillion years in prison. Then if the courts block it they’ll appeal to a different, Trump appointed judge who will rule that a person “has no reasonable expectation of privacy during detainment by a public defender because they are now legally by definition in public” or some shit all in the name of freedumb of course.
So maybe you can do something that relies on them fucking it up. Set the lock to, for example, 43o1. Set the duress pin to 4301.
If asked for the pin, say “four three oh one”. Chances are good they’ll interpret the “oh” as a 0. They can play back any recordings they have as evidence, and you’ll clearly be on record saying something that was not the pin they typed in. You did not mislead them.
This is actually some ridiculously smart advice. Do they have alphas in unlock code?
Looks like yes, you can use a duress password, which to me implies alphas.
Fl*rida just made it a misdemeanor to cover your license plate with materials that prevent those fucking Flock cameras from scanning it
That’s not even remotely new. It’s been illegal to cover a licence plate with anything that obstructs it being read, manually or otherwise, for as long as we’ve had licence plates.
They may have tweaked the language a little here and there; but that law has always been around in some form.
Well one could possibly coat the license plate with a material that left those cameras unable to scan the plate, while any human could read it just fine, not even knowing there was something different about it. I would be totally in favor of that.
The law bans that too.
The original law? What’s the wording on that I wonder…
Before it was a traffic infraction. At most you would pay a fine. Now it goes on your criminal record.
As someone who accidentally entered the duress pin, I can confirm. It’s highly effective.
“Hey, babe. Let me look at your text messages.”
“Uh, sure, let me just ‘unlock’ it.”
"Wait, why did you say that with quotes?’
“Oh, bad news, hun, seems my phone wiped itself.”
This arrest is the best damn advertisement ever
My work phone has enabled “wipe if pin is wrong three times”.
I discovered after my son wiped it three times. I must though it was defective and asked for replacement
Yeah, I think it needs to be “wipe if a specific pin is entered”, so you can wipe it only when you intend to.
Side note, my son has called the cops on several occasions by hitting the emergency button on the lock screen. Kids just have to play with it…
Side note, my son has called the cops on several occasions by hitting the emergency button on the lock screen. Kids just have to play with it…
I’ve almost done this on several occasions by locking my phone and putting it in my pocket while the screen was still on. Happened way too easily.
That works only for a subset of users able and willing to remember yet another PIN. Especially one they don’t need often.
I beleve this feature was demonstrated in Mr. Robot at one point.
I need to hurry up and install that
We don’t know the exact circumstances, but CBP stands for Customs and Border Protection.
I’ve heard of Customs agents demanding people let them search phones without a warrant and without probable cause, and so foreigners can be refused entry. We probably all heard the story of it happening for a person who had a meme of JD Vance on his phone.
But the article says that this guy is based out of Atlanta, so I’m guessing he’s a US citizen. I’m not sure they can refuse entry to a US citizen based on this.
Either way, you should never give permission to anybody to search your phone. Maybe you’ve broken a law that you didn’t know was a law, and you’ve just handed the evidence over to the police. Or maybe you have evidence that can convict somebody else who didn’t know they broke a law.
I don’t know what this means for people crossing the US border. Now is a bad time to enter the United States.
CBP has higher power than regular police, sadly.
https://www.aclunc.org/our-work/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-us-airports-and-ports-entry
Turns out, no matter who is in charge, we were living under an oppressive regime.
Or they can illegally use it to attack a law abiding person that had photos they dislike. Maybe that’s the day they go rogue, maybe they were already crooked.
Legally, they cannot refuse entry to a US Citizen. Legally.
But just because someone is based in the US doesn’t mean they’re a citizen. And they don’t need any justification to search someone, because airports and land within 100 miles of a border is a “constitution-free zone” (but not 100 miles from an airport, contrary to popular belief).
Lmao so now we’re saying all of Southern California south of Newport Beach (85 mi from Tijuana) is a place where the constitution does not apply? New York west of Rochester? (80 mi from Niagara) Pretty much all of Alaska’s tail thingy next to Canada? 😂
Not us, SCOTUS said it.
They have to “develop probable cause” to do more than check your ID but we’ve seen how easy that is over the years. At the end of the day they will make up the probable cause if they need to. But even more importantly this is the authority they’re using to have Border Patrol conduct military style patrols in our cities.
That’s literally the point
Yup. And guess what, those ares are also where nearly two thirds of the country lives.
https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/your-rights-border-zone
“now we’re saying”…? It has been like that for the last 50+ years, it’s just that most other administrations haven’t been as flagrant about it.
I think it’s even worse then that. Do you have an international airport nearby?
Yes. You are beginning to understand what has been going on.
This town is 40mi south of the Canadian border, and you will hear people speaking other languages in public as long as you aren’t in one of the racist bars. Unfortunately, I lived there for a while, and the CBP are constantly waddling into gas stations and shops hoping to relive the glory of making international headlines. (they just arrested someone from the UK, so that strategy must be working)
Hahahahahhahaha! 😂😂🤣
Yep. Pretty much. 😐😞
Its far worse than that. Anywhere that is within 80 miles of an international airport, they claim, is also inside their jurisdiction.
"U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) jurisdiction at airports covers all international arrivals/departures as designated ports of entry, plus a 100-mile zone inland from borders and coasts for immigration/customs enforcement, meaning they can operate at large international airports like DEN or DFW and even domestic ones if near borders, stopping, questioning, and searching individuals/belongings for admissibility and contraband, though searches need consent or probable cause for internal searches, notes the ACLU. "
No, it’s only at the airport.
Or at least it was; I’m sure now they’d just send ICE instead of CBP anywhere in the country.
JFYI: Your quote sates that it is within 100 miles of a border or coast. Not 80 :(
airports and land within 100 miles of a border is a “constitution-free zone”
This isn’t accurate. That’s where CBP has jurisdiction to operate, but they’re still bound by the constitution (for now),
It does indeed include international airports.
you should never give permission to anybody to search your phone
Not only does your phone have access to all your social media accounts, email, text, phone logs, but it’s also commonly used as a security device (multi factor authentication) to sign in to other accounts like your bank account, work login, etc. If you allow someone into your phone they can possibly access your work resources and that could be an even bigger problem.
Do not let anyone have access to your phone.
Details are weird here. The wiping occurred in Jan 2025. I found the indictment which was filed with the court on Nov 13th 2025 linked here
We have almost no details of what happened in Jan 2025 except “Customs and Border Patrol Tactical Terrorism Response Team” was doing something with Tunick in January and Tunick “used a code” to wipe the phone. Then suddenly in November 2025 the US Government filed to have him arrested for that event.
I’m not a legal scholar, but none of these details or timeline makes sense to me. Anyone else have any clue?
It’s not complicated, it’s Border Patrol doing their MAGA duty. The only thing we know about this case is what MAGA tells us, so it’s almost all certainly a lie. Of course the details and timeline don’t make sense, they are probably entirely fabricated.
I don’t disagree, but usually they at least try to present a semi-defensible argument. So far the only thing they elude to is “before or during a time when we were going to perform a search he wiped his own phone”. If its “before” a search then what is even the basis for that being illegal for him to wipe is own property?
usually they at least try to present a semi-defensible argument.
Not anymore
I imagine they’re trying to charge him with destruction of evidence. I don’t know how that should go if this were actually a legal proceeding but would certainly hope it would require reasonable suspicion of a specific crime and a search warrant.
Can you be charged with destruction of evidence before you’ve even been charged with a crime?
“What if the crime you’re being charged with is destruction of evidence? Checkmate!”
It sounds like a bad joke but they already do this with resisting arrest.
Yes, if a person in your situation would reasonably believe that it could be used as evidence.
For example, you murder someone with a knife. A reasonable person in your situation would believe that the knife could be used as evidence. So you could be charged for destruction of evidence if they later discover during the investigation that you destroyed the knife. Even if they don’t have enough to pin you with the murder charge, (for example, maybe you have someone willing to help you get an airtight alibi when the murder occurred), they can still hit you with the destruction of evidence charge if they can prove you destroyed the murder weapon.
But, in that case there’s a crime, there’s a body. I don’t think there’s any underlying assertion of illegality here. If this becomes standard legal practice, that it’s illegal to destroy data in general, all paper shredders would have to be thrown out.
That’s the catch isn’t it? In a lawful society and under normal due process you’d expect to start with a crime, reasonable suspicion, and a search warrant. Then yes, if it’s reasonable for you to expect that you’ve destroyed evidence, I’d expect you to be so charged.
But the entire issue with this immigration crackdown is the assertion that constitutional protections no longer apply, laws no longer apply, due process no longer applies. They have claimed for years the right to search smartphones at a border, without a warrant and we didn’t object. Now they’re extending it beyond their jurisdiction purview to search away from a border, away from their intended task, and still with little to no due process or civil rights. Now they’re trying to extend this suspension of law to a protester whose activity they don’t like. This is where the Gestapo analogy comes from.
A bit of speculation here but you can configure your phone to wipe itself automatically for exactly this type of oppression. He could very well have done so. But in what seems similar to me, companies can not destroy evidence by deleting email but they can have a policy to automatically delete it after, say 60 days. It’s automatic, a normal process, so it’s ok. How would a normal process to wipe your phone automatically not be the same?
Allude*
Yeah, but those tries are half-hearted, at best. The excuses will start falling by the wayside until the response is: “Mind yer own fucking business, but since you’re so curious, who the fuck are YOU? Get over here!”
who the fuck are YOU? Get over here!”
“Well, you certainly won’t find out from my phone, because I’ve just wiped it”
I’ll take a “deleted data” charge. On principle.
Absolutely. Got mad “I do lots of illegal shit, but I draw the line at littering” vibes.
Sometimes, doing the illegal thing is to do the moral thing.
i love the entire idea that morality is not derived from law
I mean it’s the central principle of nearly all religions…
The holocaust was legal. Slavery was legal. Morality absolutely isn’t derived from law.
I heard on a podcast that one of the architects of the Holocaust was aghast when visiting the South in the US years earlier, because of the illegality of the lynchings there, and it being widely accepted anyway.
Is it an idea, or just objective reality?
Always turn your phone offer before deplaning and don’t turn it back on until you’ve cleared customs. You can refuse a search and even if they take your phone they still don’t have a method of decrypting a phone that’s encrypted at rest after being turned off and all biometrics are disabled on start up until a password is entered (most phones).
You’ll most likely lose your phone and a few hours but that’s what you have backups for.
Reminder that Apple/Google will absolutely give law enforcement all your cloud data if presented with a warrant. I know this for a fact. Most people’s phone data is synced to the cloud. Be careful out there folks.
That’s also why I have advanced protection turned on. Granted they could always get the encrypted blob and try to crack it at that point, but there has to be some point you’re willing to draw the line.
I would just use local backups tbh.
I would fully expect any cloud provider to do the same given a warrant, but I’ve heard some will provide data simply because it was requested.
And this is why encrypted backups should become the norm. Sure, they could always try to crack the encrypted file after it gets turned over, but (assuming you have a good password set for your account) we’re talking about a scale somewhere between “a few billion years” and “the heat death of the universe” with conventional (non quantum) computers.
I always wipe my phone before traveling.
There’s nothing in my phone that I’d be the least bit worried about “getting out” but it’s the principle of the thing.
The few times I’ve traveled internationally I just bought a cheap unlocked burner phone. No telling what you might catch in another country. Plus it’s just basic itsec.
This has to be the new norm. Memorize the password to LastPass or whatever and just go in clean.
As an added benefit, that protects you if your phone gets lost or stolen during the journey.
at this point just leave your phone at home or get burner for this exact purpose
You should read up on Celebrite. They most definitely can get into a wide variety of phones from a cold boot. GrapheneOS seems to be one of the only ones that make their job hard.
I assume its because most people use 4 digit pins.
Can they crack a long passphrase?
https://stacker.news/items/616858
Here’s some charts from July last year. I don’t know if there’s any other leaked charts out there, but short answer is that your password doesn’t matter. Keep in mind that the images in the above link are a year and a half old, they can definitely crack updated OSs.
I thought that just means they can bypass the password limit and do a bruteforce, but they still need to do a bruteforce, I don’t think the key just just sitting there, right?
Sometimes they can, sometimes they can’t. It’s always a race.
*presuming you have a strong password set
They can and still will run it through a password cracker with a dictionary provided the phone has some method of either exposing the password hash or can be bruteforced on device similar to PIN bruteforcing.
You can refuse a search
Which can lead to an up to 24 hour detainment which CBP has been allegedly doing, so do know the consequences.
PIN bruteforcing.
Curious, how does that work? 10000 possibilities aren’t many but you get 30s break every 3 failed attempts then 5 more then its every single failed attempts so that’d be ~5000minutes so that’s about 3 days. Assuming they get “lucky” it’s about 1.5 day. I don’t know though what happens after 20 failed attempts, maybe it’s 1min break or 20min break.
Basically, does PIN bruteforcing actually work and if so on what timeframe?
Data Visualization of the Most Common PIN Numbers https://kottke.org/24/05/data-visualization-of-the-most-common-pin-numbers
I think my phone will actually wipe after a certain number of failed password attempts. I’d like to say 20, but I’m not certain.
Ah no it relies on either the battery drain method or another exploit that gives you a much higher rate without tripping the device.
I haven’t kept up with the CVEs for this, and I’m sure both Apple and Android have patched several, but for a while police forensics have had access to an AIO cracker tool made by a company that afaik never disclosed these CVEs for the sole purpose of keeping a method of PIN bruteforcing viable.
There’s no 30 second rest on my phone. They have 3 tries.
3 tries then what, data wipeout?
Yup
It also depends wha kind of password. I know some phones allow longer than 4 digits, and some offer alphanumeric.
I don’t think that matters as much as the delay because with brute force you can precisely go through a LOT of possibilities so the practical aspect is the attempt frequency. Even 1 number if it’s 1 attempt per decade is enough to prevent intrusion.
I think Apple has fixed this, but they would remove the battery, hook it up to external power. When unlocking, there was a pause/dimming on the phone to show it was wrong, and the computer hacking it would kill the power before the phone wrote that there was a bogus attempt, so you got infinite attempts.
I don’t think infinite attempts is the issue, I think the timing of those attempts is what practically limit the usefulness of the attack. Here in the Apple example I imagine rebooting the phone takes longer than 30s. Also if one goes to the length of removing the battery of an iPhone to crack it, this is a pretty serious attempt. One better have proper protections in place.
Was the man “Drinky” Pete Hegseth?
Oh. Well then bullshit.
He’s DoD, not DHS. This is the puppy killer’s agency
Iirc it’s the DoW now … Hegseth’s fav.
Department of Wino?
Executive branch doesn’t have the authority to change the name, so no. It’s not.
CBP = Customs and Border Protection
Not sure why that needs to be abbreviated in such a short title
