CBP Says Americans Have No Fourth Amendment At The Airport

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A troubling case at Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH) highlights how far Customs and Border Protection believes its authority now extends. On July 21, 2025, Wilmer Chavarria, a U.S. citizen returning from Nicaragua, says CBP detained him “for no given reason,” separated him from his spouse, and took him into secondary screening. He was held for about four hours.

During that detention, he says agents repeatedly pressured him to hand over his laptop, phone, and tablet, along with the passwords to access them. When he objected, he says CBP told him he had “no Fourth Amendment rights at the border,” warned that asserting his rights was “suspicious,” and denied requests to contact family or a lawyer. After hours of isolation and pressure, he says he ultimately gave in and turned over the devices and passwords.

View From The Wing covered this case in detail, and I agree with him completely. This is not a close call. What CBP is asserting here is not routine border authority. It is an extraordinary and dangerous expansion of government power that should concern anyone who travels internationally, especially Americans who assume their constitutional rights follow them home.

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