DHS/TSA demand mayor turn over his passwords and say he has “no right for a lawyer to be present” (Updated)
Image credit: Lehighvalleylive.com
The mayor of Stockton, California was briefly detained and had two of his laptops and a cell phone confiscated by homeland security agents at the San Francisco International Airport earlier this week after returning from a trip to China.
“A few minutes later, DHS agents confiscated all my electronic devices including my personal cell phone. Unfortunately, they were not willing or able to produce a search warrant or any court documents suggesting they had a legal right to take my property. In addition, they were persistent about requiring my passwords for all devices,” Mayor Anthony Silva said.
Silva was not allowed to leave the airport until he gave his passwords to the agents, which the mayor’s personal attorney, Mark Reichel, claimed is illegal.
The mayor said the agents told him confiscating property from travelers at the airport was “in fact routine and not unusual,” and promised to return the items within a few days.
Silva was also told he had “no right for a lawyer to be present” and that being a U.S. citizen did not “entitle me to rights that I probably thought.”
..."I briefly had to remind myself that this was not North Korea or Nazi Germany. This is the land of the Free" Silva said.
Updated 10/8/2015:
Was Mayor Silva targeted by DHS?
Gov't agents shouldn't be able to use the “border exemption” to the 4th. Amendment to search and seize electronics, WITHOUT a warrant!
Silva’s detention was tied to an ongoing investigation according to an ANONYMOUS source with links to law enforcement.
“It was not a random stop,” one source said of Silva’s detention by federal agents as he returned to the United States after a trip with other mayors to China. Both sources spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"The detention, search and seizure is unlawful. Mr. Silva, who was not free to leave when he was detained and questioned by the officers of DHS, refused to provide his password for the electronic devices. Despite his many refusals to provide that password, the DHS officers insisted that he had no such right and also that he was required to provide the password. He has a valid Fifth Amendment Right to not provide the passwords, and the officers were in direct violation of those rights to insist and ‘require’ that he provide them” Attorney Reichel said.
What's the point of having a Bill of Rights if our government IGNORES it? Why even claim the Fourth Amendment still exists?
The truth is DHS/Police use Stingray's to spy on our cell phones without a warrant!
Appeals Courts in Massachusetts and Arizona claim police need a search warrant before they're allowed to search your cellphones, laptops or tablets.
But, the Dept. of Justice claims a search warrant allows police to prosecute anyone for any computer crimes they find that are outside the scope of a search warrant.
"The Justice Department is set to argue Wednesday before a federal appeals court that it may prosecute people for crimes based on evidence obtained from their computers—evidence that was outside the scope of an original probable-cause search warrant."
"Consistent with the Fourth Amendment, the government may obtain a search warrant for nearly any person, place, or thing if the government establishes probable cause for the search and did not engage in an illegal seizure of the item to be searched," Assistant US Attorney Sandra Glover wrote in the government's brief.
image credit: Sogrady.org