Border Agents Use CSAM Pretext

New court records show Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) asked Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to detain an activist’s devices for a terrorism probe while telling the traveler the search was for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The episode — including an HSI/JTTF email instructing secondary inspection, retention of electronics and passcodes and officers admitting they had no reason to believe CSAM existed — suggests officials may be routinely invoking child‑safety to obtain device access in unrelated investigations. — If replicated, this tactic expands how authorities bypass legal and political constraints around surveillance and device searches, affecting privacy, protest policing, and the integrity of border search procedures.