KINGSTON, Jamaica — Noted immigration attorney George Crimarco today advised that the US Customs and Border Protection Agency is free to take steps deemed necessary before allowing travellers to enter the US.
“The US Customs and Border Protection is the agency that regulates admissions into the United States and they pretty much have unbordered authority to search, to seize, to do whatever they think,” the attorney told OBSERVER ONLINE today.
The Jamaica Observer on Wednesday published the report of a man, said to be Jamaican, whose cellphone was searched by US customs agents and child pornography found.
The man, identified as Anthony Carl Spence, had just disembarked a flight from Jamaica.
Investigators handling the case did not disclose what circumstances led to the man’s phone being searched, but it left OBSERVER ONLINE readers questioning the legality of the act and the circumstances under which someone’s phone can be searched.
Read: Jamaican held at US airport with child porn on phone
The immigration attorney explained that there is no constitutional protection within the confines of the airport, whether the traveller is a citizen or not, but actions of the customs agency could be contested if entry clearance is given.
“But you can’t contest their authority to search you at the airport, you can’t say: I don’t want you to search me, I’m not giving you that,” Crimarco emphasised.
“That’s just the way it is, If they seize something from you, you have the right to contest that seizure later on but you can’t say to them: you (are) not getting my phone, you’re not getting into my stuff,” he advised.
Meanwhile, the man who was held at the Orlando International Airport on Monday, was arrested and charged in federal court with one count of possession of child pornography.