Activists want to know why feds are searching more devices at the border

A free speech advocacy organization sued the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, seeking "statistical, policy, and assessment records regarding the government’s searches" of digital devices at the United States border. The group, the Knight First Amendment Institute based at Columbia University, said on that the lawsuit came about as a result of recent journalism on the issue. There has been a rapid uptick in the number of such incidents: February 2017 alone had more border searches of phones, tablets, and computers than all of 2015. Gillian M. Christensen, the acting DHS press secretary, declined to comment further, saying, "As a matter of policy, DHS does not comment on pending litigation."