CBP Searched 52,080 Traveler Devices in First Three Quarters of Fiscal 2026

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers searched 52,080 electronic devices between October 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026.

The number of device inspections has grown steadily since 2021. During the first three quarters of the 2026 fiscal year, agents conducted 52,080 searches. This total exceeds the 39,251 searches recorded in the same period of the prior year by more than 32 percent. The figure approaches the all-time high of 55,424 searches recorded across the entirety of fiscal 2025.

CBP categorized 47,517 of these inspections as basic searches. Officers can perform basic searches without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. The remaining 4,564 were advanced searches, which require reasonable suspicion of unlawful activity or a national security concern. Advanced searches allow officers to analyze or copy a device's contents.

The agency did not specify how many searches occurred at the Canadian border versus the Mexican border. CBP also withheld data on the split between airport and land crossing inspections. The agency did not release the total number of travelers entering the country or the breakdown between U.S. citizens and non-citizens. These details typically appear in annual reports.

Jessica Turner, a CBP public affairs officer, stated via email that device searches affect a small fraction of travelers. She noted that 0.01 percent of travelers had their devices searched in 2025, when 419 million people entered the country. Turner said the searches aim to detect digital contraband, terrorism-related content, and information relevant to admissibility.

Esha Bhandari, director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, called for increased congressional oversight. She said, "It's hard to speculate on the reasons for the increase because the government doesn't explain it." Bhandari argued that aggregate data makes it difficult to understand specific trends. She cited anecdotes of travelers being questioned about political opinions, writing, or religious practice.

In January, CBP updated its guidelines to include flash drives, SIM cards, GPS systems, drones, vehicle infotainment systems, and smart watches. The update also added smuggling of narcotics, firearms, and transnational theft of proprietary information to the list of detectable crimes. Laura Dawson, executive director of the Future Borders Coalition, said the increase is hard to judge without location and volume data. She noted that one in 9,000 crossings leads to a U.S. inspection, while one in 14,000 leads to a search on the Canadian side.