A lawsuit by Miami immigration advocate Thomas Kennedy seeks the return or destruction of data he says federal border agents may have copied from his phone. The case centers on Kennedy’s concern that agents may have copied information from his device during a lengthy inspection at Miami International Airport.
According to Miami New Times, Kennedy, a policy consultant for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, says he was questioned for more than two hours after returning from Egypt and Turkey on September 6. He alleges agents may have copied emails, texts, call records, contacts and immigration-related information from his phone.
Kennedy’s complaint characterizes the stop as retaliation connected to his immigration advocacy and alleges agents took adverse action based on protected speech. He is seeking the return or destruction of any data obtained from the phone. Those claims are allegations, not findings by a court.
Other reported phone-search encounters
Border device searches have also featured in separate, reported encounters, though the circumstances differ. Quartz reported that NASA employee Sidd Bikkannavar was detained at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport on January 30, when agents demanded his phone and access code.
In another case, The Guardian reported that agents at Virginia’s Dulles airport sent reporter Max Blumenthal to secondary inspection on July 10, asked for his phone passwords and seized his phones after he declined to provide them. These separate accounts show other travelers have faced phone-related scrutiny at the border; they do not verify Kennedy’s account, establish a pattern of retaliation, or show what happened to his device.
