CBP Searches 52,080 Traveler Devices in First Three Quarters, Up 32 Percent

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers inspected 52,080 electronic devices during the first three quarters of fiscal year 2026. That figure marks a 32 percent increase from the 39,251 devices searched in the same period of the previous year. The data covers the period from October 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, and approaches the all-time record of 55,424 searches recorded in the entirety of fiscal 2025.

CBP categorized 47,517 of these inspections as basic searches. Officers can conduct these without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. The remaining 4,564 were advanced searches, which allow officers to analyze or copy device contents when they suspect unlawful activity or national security concerns. The agency did not specify how many searches occurred at the Canadian border versus the Mexican border, nor did it break down the numbers by airports and land crossings.

Jessica Turner, a CBP public affairs officer, stated in an email that the rise is consistent with trends since 2021. She noted that only 0.01 percent of the 419 million travelers who entered the country in 2025 had their devices searched. Turner explained that the inspections aim to detect digital contraband, terrorism-related content, and information relevant to admissibility. The agency withheld details on the total number of travelers entering the country during the 2026 period and the ratio of U.S. citizens to non-citizens among those searched.

Esha Bhandari, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, argued that the increase requires more congressional oversight. She said the government's failure to explain the rise makes it difficult to understand the driving factors. Bhandari noted that the ACLU receives troubling anecdotes from travelers who were asked about their political opinions, writing, or religious practices. She suggested the trend reflects advances in technology and a lack of federal court limits on government authority.

CBP updated its guidelines in January to clarify that device searches include flash drives, SIM cards, GPS systems, smart watches, and vehicle infotainment systems. The update also added transnational theft of proprietary information to the list of crimes the searches target. Laura Dawson, executive director of the Future Borders Coalition, said the increase is hard to judge without location and volume data. She noted that the World Cup and increased scrutiny on human smuggling, including the Ryan Wedding case, may have contributed to the higher numbers.

Dawson emphasized that device searches remain rare despite social media narratives. She calculated 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. Canadian officials have searched a smaller share of devices in recent years, and those numbers have been falling. The Canada Border Services Agency has not yet released its 2026 statistics.