Latest news with #AmirMakled
NDTV
a day ago
- Politics
- NDTV
'Delete Your Nudes': What Travellers Must Know Before Visiting The US
International travelers to the US are being cautioned to cleanse their digital devices of sensitive content, including personal photos, as border agents ramp up electronic searches under President Trump's renewed 'enhanced vetting' policies, according to The Metro. These measures, reinstated through executive orders, permit Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers to inspect smartphones, laptops, and social media accounts without a warrant. As per the news report, although such searches affect only a small fraction of travellers, they have led to detentions and deportations based on digital content, including political views and personal images. Experts advise travellers to minimise stored data, use encrypted cloud services, and disable biometric logins to protect privacy. According to The Metro report, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials have the legal authority to search electronic devices at the border: that's phones, laptops, and tablets. This includes reviewing text messages, social media activity, photos, emails, and even your browser history. In March, an unnamed French scientist was denied entry to the States after airport immigration officers searched his phone and found messages critical of the Trump administration. According to The Guardian, recently Amir Makled, a Lebanese-American lawyer representing one of the University of Michigan pro-Palestine campus protesters, was recently stopped at Detroit Metro Airport and interrogated by a tactical terrorism response team agent. Makled has said the agents knew exactly who he was; his phone was searched, and they asked about his contacts. Eventually, he was allowed to go home. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has imposed a ban on citizens from 12 countries, along with entry restrictions on nationals from seven other nations, citing national security and immigration enforcement concerns. The US President signed the executive order on June 4, nearly five months after taking office for the second term, and it will come into effect on June 9. The travel ban has been divided into two categories: a complete ban and a partial ban. Trump has imposed a full entry ban on 12 countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, the Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Eritrea, and Somalia. The complete travel ban means the citizens of the aforementioned countries cannot enter the US at all, irrespective of the reason and purpose. He said that these countries don't respect US immigration rules. Most countries on the list denied taking their citizens back, and most of the people from here overstayed their visas, he said. Partial restrictions apply to seven countries: Burundi, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, Cuba, and Venezuela.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pro-Palestinian protester's lawyer stopped and searched at US border: ‘They were going to take my device'
Amir Makled thought he was being racially profiled. A Lebanese American who was born and raised in Detroit, the attorney was returning home from a family vacation in the Dominican Republic when he said an immigration official at the Detroit Metro airport asked for a 'TTRT' agent after scanning his passport on Sunday. Makled said the expression on the agent's face changed. He felt something 'odd' was happening. 'So I Googled what TTRT meant. I didn't know,' Makled said. 'And what I found out was it meant Tactical Terrorism Response Team. So immediately I knew they're gonna take me in for questioning. And that's when I felt like I was being racially profiled or targeted because I am Arab.' But it quickly became apparent, Makled said, that the stop was different from the type of so-called random stop Muslims and Arab-Americans have become accustomed to at US airports. The plainclothes immigration officer said he knew who Makled was and what he did for a living, according to the lawyer; agents wanted to search his phone. 'They made it clear right off the top: 'We know that you're an attorney and we know that you're taking on some higher-profile cases.' I was like, 'OK, well, what do you want from me?'' Makled recalled. Related: How to protect your phone and data privacy at the US border Among the high-profile cases Makled has taken on recently: a pro-Palestinian student protester who was arrested at a demonstration at the University of Michigan. 'To me, there's a clear correlation when you think about what's been happening with all the student protesters across the country and the very explicit direction from the current administration about looking into attorneys who are taking on cases for people seeking asylum or these major law firms in Washington that he issued executive orders on,' he said. In the past few months, the Trump administration has set its sights on people protesting against Israel's ongoing attacks on Gaza. The administration has detained and attempted to deport student protesters who are in the US on visas and revoked the visas of more than 600 students, some in explicit retaliation for activism. Donald Trump has simultaneously signed executive orders that take aim at major law firms that have previously represented clients who opposed some of the president's interests by stripping them of their access to federal buildings. On top of that, device searches at US ports of entry are legally permissible under existing case law in most places. Fourth amendment protections provided by the US constitution, which guard against 'unreasonable search and seizure', are weaker at the US border. The officers never explained to him what they were looking for or why he was being stopped, according to Makled. They told the lawyer that he could either unlock his phone voluntarily or that they would confiscate it and look through it themselves, he said. Makled, who has been an attorney since 2012, uses his phone to speak to his clients. He told the officer much of the information on his device was privileged and that he would not hand it over. Agents asked him to write down what was privileged so they could look at other information on his device, he said, and he refused. After consulting with a supervisor, the official returned and said that he planned to take away Makled's device unless the lawyer gave up the list of contacts on it. Makled felt he had no choice but to acquiesce. 'Because they kept telling me they were just going to take the device,' he said. 'And I didn't want that to happen. I needed my device.' After downloading and then browsing his contacts, the immigration official asked Makled about five or six specific names. He refused to divulge any more information. He was eventually allowed to go home. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told the Guardian that Makled's account was 'blatantly false and sensationalized'. According to the agency, the attorney underwent a routine, 90-minute secondary inspection that any traveler might face. Makled provided written consent for 'a limited search' of his phone, which was 'conducted in accordance with established protocols', CBP assistant commissioner Hilton Beckham said. 'He was then promptly released. Claims that this was an attack on his profession or were politically motivated are baseless. Our officers are following the law, not agendas,' Beckham said. Sophia Cope, a senior staff attorney at the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, called the search of Makled's phone 'outrageous'. 'CBP or [the Department of Homeland Security] could not show up at this attorney's office and say: 'give me your contact list' without a warrant,' Cope said. 'That would be completely illegal. But because this guy is at the border, and they want it for potentially just domestic monitoring and enforcement, somehow now the fourth amendment goes away.' Both citizens and non-citizens entering the US are potentially subject to having their phones searched at the border. Fourth amendment protections, which guard against 'unreasonable search and seizure', have been weakened at US points of entry. CBP's role is to stop people or goods that could pose a threat to the US from entering the country. In the case of US citizens, CBP may pull a traveler whom agents have security concerns about – anything from drug or sex trafficking to espionage concerns – but must ultimately admit them into the country, Cope said. However, there have been many recent cases of CBP pulling a US citizen about whom they have no border security concerns into a secondary screening at the behest of other federal agencies, Cope said. The FBI, for example, has in the past asked CBP to put flags on people's travel profiles so that when they cross the border they are pulled into secondary inspection, she said. 'That may be because the person is under domestic investigation themselves or because the traveler is associated with somebody who's under investigation and the government's just trying to get around the warrant requirement,' Cope said. Cope said that, based on the existing information, it doesn't appear Makled's stop was routine. 'If they tell him: 'We know you're a lawyer,' and then this terrorism flag popped up, that's not routine, that's pre-planned,' Cope said. Related: Here's what you need to know about your rights when entering the US CBP has access to a vast array of databases through which agents can gain access to personal information about individuals who are traveling into or out of the US. One of these repositories may have contained a 'lookout' designation for Makled, a flag on his file that can lead to a secondary screening. Those 'lookouts' can remain on a person's file as long as CBP deems them 'pertinent', according to documents revealed in a 2019 case in Massachusetts federal court. When Makled was finally released around two hours after he was first detained, he asked the official if he should expect to be stopped every time he traveled abroad. 'He's like, 'You might be stopped next time,'' Makled said. 'You might not. It depends on the agent that's working.'
Al Jazeera
30-04-2025
- Al Jazeera
A ‘constitutional loophole': How phone inspections test US civil rights
Dearborn, Michigan – Travelling is a normal part of life for Michigan lawyer Amir Makled. As recently as December, he went overseas and returned home to the United States without any issues. 'I've been out of the country at least 20 times. I've been all over Europe. I go to Lebanon every year,' he said. But returning this month to the Detroit Metro Airport was a very different experience. He and his family had just come home from a spring-break holiday in the Dominican Republic when they reached a customs checkpoint. 'The agent looked over at me and then looked to another agent and asked him if the TTRT agents are here. I didn't know what this meant.' He googled the acronym. It stands for Tactical Terrorist Response Teams. 'As an Arab American and as a Muslim American, whenever I'm travelling, even if I'm driving in from Canada, I feel some sort of anxiety about it, that I'm going to be randomly selected to be stopped or profiled,' he explained. 'When he said those words, I thought: 'OK, I'm going to be profiled here.'' Sure enough, Makled and his family were asked to go to another room. Since Makled is a US citizen, born in Detroit, Michigan, he knew that he couldn't be denied entry into the country. He urged his wife and kids to pass through the checkpoint without him. 'I knew my rights at the border in that regard. And I was also familiar with the extent of border searches,' he said. 'This is the first time I've ever been stopped.' But what happened next would put the lawyer in a precarious position. Border control agents have considerable legal rights to search a person's belongings. The idea is to prevent security hazards, contraband or environmental threats from entering the country. Those searches, however, extend to the contents of electronic devices. And that raises questions about what material needs to be regulated — and what needs to be protected from the prying eyes of the government. Makled knew the border agents could take his phone. But as a lawyer, he faced a thorny ethical dilemma. His phone contained privileged attorney-client information. In the US, a basic tenet of the legal system is that a client can have frank discussions with their lawyer, with the safety of knowing anything they say will be kept confidential. A substantial amount of Makled's work was on his phone. When asked to hand it over, he told the border officers he couldn't give them the device. 'All my emails, my text messages, my files, the cloud-based software I use for my office,' he said, 'it's all through my phone.' As a civil rights and criminal defence lawyer, Makled represents people he said are particularly vulnerable. One of his clients is a protester who was arrested at a pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Michigan last year. She was later charged with resisting and obstructing police, a felony that carries up to a two-year prison sentence. Makled believes he was targeted because the border officers knew this information. One of the agents, he said, even called him a 'famous lawyer', a comment he took to be a reference to the protester's case. In the end, he gave the agents written permission to see his contacts but no other permissions. After about 90 minutes at the airport, he was allowed to leave with his phone. For nearly a century, Title 19 of the US code has allowed border control officers the right to search any person entering the country, their luggage or other items in their possession at the time of the inspection. But digital devices today contain far more information than is relevant to a person's trip. The most recent fiscal year saw 47,047 electronic devices searched by border control officers, the vast majority of which belonged to non-US citizens. That's a nearly 13 percent increase over the previous fiscal year in 2023, when US Customs and Border Protection clocked 41,767 electronic searches. The question of whether these searches can be manipulated for political gain or reprisals has long dogged the process. In November 2018, for instance, an employee of the tech company Apple, Andreas Gal, said he was detained while returning to San Francisco from an international trip. Like Makled, Gal was flagged for the TTRT. And like the lawyer, customs officers pushed to search his electronic devices. He refused. Gal later said he believed he was targeted in response to the political views he expressed online. But in recent weeks, experts fear the threat of such searches has risen. Since taking office for a second term in January, President Donald Trump has sought to deport noncitizens he sees as critical of the US or its ally Israel. Material from electronic devices has been among the evidence allegedly used to expel people from the country. For example, kidney transplant specialist Rasha Alawieh had been denied re-entry after flying back to the US from her native Lebanon. She held a valid H-1B visa that allowed her to work in the US. News reports indicate that the Trump administration cited photos recovered from her phone as motivation for expelling her, including images she had of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. 'Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied,' the Department of Homeland Security wrote in a statement after Alawieh's expulsion. Also in March, the French government said one of its citizens, a scientist, was prevented from entering the US on account of the political messages on his phone. The Trump administration has denied that accusation, however. 'The French researcher in question was in possession of confidential information on his electronic device from Los Alamos National Laboratory — in violation of a non-disclosure agreement,' Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote on social media. 'Any claim that his removal was based on political beliefs is blatantly false.' There are two types of screenings a device may undergo while in border control custody. A 'light' search happens when an officer looks through an electronic device by hand. An advanced search, which legally requires 'reasonable suspicion' of a crime, involves the device being connected to external equipment. The device may not be returned to its owner for weeks or months. Border agents do not need a warrant to search an electronic device, although US citizens are not obligated to unlock their electronics in order to re-enter their country. However, for travellers who are not US citizens or permanent residents, refusing to share these details could result in being denied entry. But experts say these practices raise serious concerns about the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, which grants protection from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. Esha Bhandari, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, explained she has seen examples of the government using these border checks to bypass Fourth Amendment protections. 'The government is increasingly treating this as a constitutional loophole,' Bhandari said. 'They have someone under investigation, and rather than waiting on whether they can establish probable cause, which requires a judge to give a warrant, they wait until someone crosses the international border and treat that as a convenient opportunity to search their devices.' But just how far that loophole can stretch is a matter of debate. Saira Hussain, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the courts in the US have yet to reach a consensus about just how far searches of digital devices can go — and what the limits are. 'At this moment, whether you fly into San Francisco vs Boston vs Atlanta, there are three different rulings on exactly which part of your phone can be searched, for what purposes [or] what level of suspicion is needed,' Hussain said. 'A number of lower courts have ruled on the issue, [but] there has not been uniformity.' For his part, Makled said he has not been deterred from travelling — or representing controversial causes. 'I feel that this is an intimidation tactic. It's an attempt to dissuade me from taking on these types of cases,' he said, referring to his defence of the protester arrested at the University of Michigan. 'I say I won't be dissuaded. I'm going to continue to do what I believe.'
Middle East Eye
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Lawyers slam Michigan for 'intimidating' pro-Palestinian students with raids
Human Rights activists and legal experts have slammed the US state of Michigan and the FBI for conducting a "witch hunt" against pro-Palestinian protesters in what they say is an excessive use of force. On Wednesday, the FBI and local law enforcement agencies raided several homes of both current and former American students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Protests have been ongoing at the campus since Israel launched its war on Gaza following the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel. The demonstrations have called on the university to divest from companies doing business with Israel and Israeli entities. Amir Makled, an attorney representing some of the students who were targeted, called the raids a "witch hunt" designed to deter students from pro-Palestinian demonstrations. "I feel this is another intimidation tactic. I feel that this is another way to show an overreaching amount of force that's highly unusual in an attempt to chill the speech of these students and dissuade others from being part of pro-Palestinian advocacy," he told Middle East Eye. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters On Thursday, Michigan's attorney general's office released a statement describing "a significant police presence" in the cities of Ann Arbor, Canton and Ypsilanti, where police and federal agents executed search warrants at five locations. "The search warrants, authorized by the 45th District Court, were executed in furtherance of the Michigan Department of Attorney General's yearlong investigation into coordinated criminal acts of vandalism and property damage occurring in multiple counties in southeastern Michigan," the statement said. The statement included more than a dozen photographs showing homes -including those of University of Michigan president Santa Ono and the school's regent Jordan Acker - and cars painted with red graffiti saying "Coward" and "Divest. Free Palestine." Other properties painted with graffiti slamming Israel and smeared with red paint included a historical mansion, a Raymond James office and a Maersk office. Targeted for supporting Palestine Liz Jacob, staff attorney at the Sugar Law Center in Detroit, told MEE she was called at 7am by people affected by the raids. "It feels they are targeting students who have been vocal about Palestine," she told MEE. US revokes around 1,500 student visas, universities say they weren't notified Read More » 'We saw the search warrants. They don't include a reason for the warrants. No probable cause named. There have been no criminal charges made against the people impacted," she added. 'The only thing connecting these folks is with the University of Michigan and the fact they have advocated for Palestine. It makes it hard to see it as anything but politically motivated," she said. She added that under Michigan law, whether a warrant states probable cause falls a under a judge's discretion. A judge can withhold naming it on the warrant under "exceptional circumstances". Jacob questioned whether the acts of alleged vandalism met that requirement. She said that students were left without laptops as they went into their final exams. 'Aggressive raids' Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also criticised the raids as "aggressive". He said that they were "politically motivated". "Property was damaged during the raids and individuals were handcuffed without charges during these aggressive raids," he told MEE. The attorney general's office said that one entryway was breached during the execution of one warrant. Walid said that the raids fit a pattern that has been followed by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who he accused of "targeting pro-Palestinian protesters." Walid said that Nessel has also been "hostile" towards Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib – the only Palestinian American member of Congress, because she accused her of "antisemitism". "When looking at these other events, we believe the raids are politically charged," he added. Walid said it was the first time the FBI was involved in Michigan in clamping down on pro-Palestinian advocacy. "An arrest warrant looking for potential vandalism would be executed by local law enforcement," he said. University of Michigan staffer fired for protesting a year earlier, while still a student Read More » Makled also said he filed a motion to have Nessel removed and disqualified as the prosecutor in a case relating to 2024 pro-Palestinian protests because he was concerned about her being "biased". "Dana Nessel is not impartial in this cause," he said. Makled cited an investigation by The Guardian in October 2024 that found Nessel was favoured by the University of Michigan governing board to be a prosecutor because she was expected to take a hard line on students. In a previous investigation, Nessel asked a special prosecutor to take over her case citing "perceptions" that she was biased against "Arabs and Muslims". The University of Michigan refused to comment on the raids.
Forbes
17-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
After Border Incidents, Employers Worry–And Even Issue Burner Phones For U.S. Travel
Companies worried device searches at U.S. border control are considering issuing burner phones to their employees. When the Spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund begin in Washington D.C. next week, some European Commission staff will come equipped with special burner phones and replacement laptops issued specially for U.S. travel. The security measures, according to the Financial Times, replicate those the EC has previously taken when its staff travels to China. The aim is to protect European information from surveillance by a hostile country, which the U.S. under the Trump Administration has become, in the view of some Europeans. A number of countries, including Canada, China, France, Germany and Denmark have issued new travel advisories for its citizens traveling to the U.S. Denmark is among the European U.S. allies who've warned transgender travelers about new U.S. policies that recognize only two sexes––male and female. Finland's warning went as far as saying travelers could be denied entry into the country if the gender on their passport does not match that assigned at birth. Meanwhile, the Canadian Association of University Teachers has told members to avoid any non-essential travel to their southern neighbor, especially if they've expressed negative views of the Trump administration, identify as transgender or research other topics that could be seen to be at odds with the Trump Agenda. (Along with transgender treatment, Trump has identified targets including the promotion of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Palestinian cause.). Such moves come after an increase in high-profile instances of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents stopping both immigrants and U.S. citizens and searching through their phones. In March, a French scientist on assignment for the French National Center for Scientific Research was denied entry at the U.S. border after immigration agents searched his phone and found messages critical of the Trump Administration. A Brown University doctor from Lebanon, who was about to start as an assistant professor of medicine, was denied entry, held for 36 hours and then deported because of photos found on her phone. Just this past Sunday, a New Hampshire real estate attorney, returning from a weekend trip to celebrate Palm Sunday in Canada, was stopped at the U.S. border and had his email searched. And earlier this month, a Detroit lawyer returning from the Dominican Republic, who happens to represent a pro-Palestinian student protestor, had his phone searched, despite his argument that it contained legally privileged information. Amir Makled, the Detroit lawyer, says he serves a sizable Arab-American population and often advises clients on what to do if they're stopped at the border. But before his own phone was searched, he'd never heard of this happening to an attorney. 'I know that the Trump administration has been very clear about attacking law firms and lawyers,' he says. 'I was included in that.' Such incidents, as well as the rhetoric from the Trump Administration, has worried some foreign businesses and U.S. businesses with foreign employees. Client questions over whether or not to issue burner phones to traveling employees 'is popping up,' says Leon Rodriguez, a Washington, D.C. partner in Seyfarth Shaw's immigration practice and the former Obama-appointed director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Using burner phones within the U.S. is not common practice among employers, he adds, but it is used most often in fields that deal with sensitive information––those solving financial crimes, lawyers whose work information is protected by attorney-client privilege or even employees in high-tech fields that travel with commercially sensitive data. Issuing company cell phones to staff is not a hugely popular practice in the first place, regardless of if they are considered 'burner phones' or not. Only 15% of small and midsize business owners issue smartphones to all employees, according to a 2022 survey by Oxford Economics and Samsung, though 46% offer it to select employers. There is no legal distinction between personal or professional devices when it comes to immigration law, especially at border points where constitutional protections against 'unreasonable search and seizure' are weaker. That means that customs agents would still be able to search proprietary company information saved onto a phone. Notably, customs agents can only search information saved onto the hardware, says Rodriguez, not information saved onto cloud services. But the Department of Homeland Security warned last week that it plans to begin screening for antisemitism the social media activity of those seeking student visas or to immigrate here. 'It's not just the device issue, but the whole constellation of immigration enforcement activities has a greater potential to really affect U.S. businesses,' Rodriguez adds. Mass deportations are worrying employers in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors, where immigrants make up a large percentage of workers. (Though the Trump administration has been vocal about mass deportations, actual deportations have slowed year-over-year.) Companies with highly-skilled workers on H1-B visas, among others, are worried about retaining their talent. A looming travel ban reminiscent of Trump's first administration, has Rodriguez and other counsel advising clients to limit required company travel for those on employee visas should a ban be implemented while they're abroad.
