Under Biden, CBP Searched 47,047 Phones, Laptops and Other Devices at the Border. 30% of the Search Records Reviewed Were Missing Required Information, Inspector General Finds
Customs and Border Protection officers searched 47,047 electronic devices, including phones, cameras and laptops, at U.S. ports of entry in fiscal year 2024 under the Biden administration, and kept 2,316 of them for further investigation, according to a report released Sept. 28 by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general.
The audit, report OIG-26-33, found that CBP "did not properly document device searches." Of 40 search reports the inspector general reviewed, 12, or 30 percent, were missing information required by CBP's own rules. The report also says CBP refused the inspector general direct, read-only access to one of its main law enforcement databases during the audit.
CBP disputes the 30 percent figure. It concurred with all three of the inspector general's recommendations.
THE BIDEN-ERA NUMBERS ON CBP ELECTRONIC DEVICE SEARCHES
The audit covers searches from Oct. 1, 2023, through Sept. 30, 2024, the government's fiscal year 2024, when Joe Biden was president and Alejandro Mayorkas led the Department of Homeland Security.
CBP reported 42,725 basic searches, in which an officer looks through a device by hand, and 4,322 advanced searches, in which the device is connected to outside equipment so its contents can be reviewed, copied or analyzed. Advanced searches require reasonable suspicion or a national security concern, plus a senior supervisor's approval.
CBP screened nearly 420 million arriving travelers that year, so the searches touched about 0.01 percent of them, the report says. CBP's website says device searches rose to 55,318 in fiscal year 2025, a year that spanned the end of the Biden administration and the start of the Trump administration.
WHAT WAS MISSING
The inspector general found that four of the 40 reports had no record that the traveler got a "tear sheet," the handout explaining the search. Others lacked device details, the results of a device detention, or approval for holding a device longer than five days.
During a visit to the San Ysidro port of entry in California, the inspector general found an officer who ran an advanced search and wrote only "national security concerns" as the reason. "The narrative did not provide articulable facts (i.e., details or applicable factors) supporting why the officer elected to conduct the advanced search or describe the national security concerns," the report says. The report blames supervisors who "did not thoroughly review" the records.
CBP also did not track how often information from searched devices was retained, copied, shared or entered into a database, or how often it was sent to other federal agencies and led to prosecutions or convictions. A 2016 federal law requires the inspector general to report those numbers to Congress. "Because CBP did not track these metrics, we are unable to report on them as mandated," the report says.
The report also found CBP had not updated its device-search directive, issued in January 2018, within the three years the law requires. CBP issued a new version on Jan. 1, 2026.
ACCESS DENIED
The inspector general says CBP denied its request for direct, read-only access to the TECS database and delayed access to the module holding the search reports. The denial, the report says, "prevented us from conducting a comprehensive risk analysis" and from validating data CBP had provided.
CBP argued the law "does not prescribe the specific format or methodology for data delivery." The inspector general rejected that, writing that CBP's "justification misinterprets the Inspector General Act of 1978" and that "component-generated static datasets are not an acceptable alternative."
WHAT CBP SAYS
In an Aug. 5, 2026, response signed by Dale G. Martin, CBP's acting senior component accountable official, the agency said its own review found only one of the 40 records was not fully compliant. "One noncompliant record represents 2.5 percent of the sample size of 40 records, which is vastly different from the 30 percent reported in OIG's findings and calls into question the sensationalized title of the report," CBP wrote. On the San Ysidro case, CBP said "derogatory information may be classified or otherwise sensitive" and kept in separate systems.
The inspector general wrote that it disagreed and had given CBP the criteria and examples behind its findings.
CBP agreed to issue a memo on documentation reviews, update training, work with Congress on its reporting, and set up a formal policy review process. It set June 30, 2027, as the completion date for each recommendation.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the DHS Office of Inspector General did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.
A REPORT FROM THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION
The audit work ran from April through September 2025, under the Trump administration, and the report was issued under Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari. The inspector general said publication was "significantly delayed" by three government shutdowns in fiscal year 2026. It is the last of three audits the 2016 law required; reports in 2018 and 2021 also found documentation problems.
Privacy groups have long criticized the searches. The Electronic Privacy Information Center says warrantless border searches of devices "pose significant privacy risks and could violate an individual's Fourth Amendment rights," and that the data from a device can reveal "religious affiliations, political beliefs."
Sources: DHS Office of Inspector General, "CBP Did Not Consistently Document and Track Searches of Electronic Devices at U.S. Ports of Entry as Required," OIG-26-33 (Sept. 28, 2026): https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2026-09/OIG-26-33-Sep26-Redacted.pdf; report listing on Oversight.gov: https://www.oversight.gov/reports/audit/cbp-did-not-consistently-document-and-track-searches-electronic-devices-us-ports; CBP, Border Search of Electronic Devices at Ports of Entry (FY 2025 figure): https://www.cbp.gov/travel/cbp-search-authority/border-search-electronic-devices; Electronic Privacy Information Center, EPIC v. CBP (Border Search Audits of Electronic Devices): https://epic.org/documents/epic-v-cbp-border-search-audits-of-electronic-devices/. Cover: CBP officer at Dulles International Airport, CBP photo by Glenn Fawcett, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. In-post background: CBP officer's handheld device at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, CBP photo by Donna Burton, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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