France’s research minister said a French scientist was denied entry to the US this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration.

  • despicable@lemmy.today
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    6 hours ago

    Translation: if you’re going to the US you might have to immediately find a flight back because their government might go through your phone and find out that you rightfully criticised their great orange leader. Glad I managed to visit before, America can go and choke on their aspirations.

  • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    The Nazis literally did this with a law. They made it illegal to be critical of the party. Fuck the alarm, we’ve already been had.

    • Hikuro-93@lemmy.ca
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      8 hours ago

      Yup. “But we’re not there yet”, so they say. “Too soon to act rashly”.

      'First they started mass deportations, but it wasn’t a corrupt system yet, so we did not act.

      Then they started refusing people who were critical of them, but it wasn’t a corrupt system yet, so we did not act.

      Then they started blatantly taking money from the poor and give it to the rich, but it wasn’t a corrupt system yet, so we did not act.

      Finally they fully took over the nation, but by then all the people who would have acted were already gone and dealt with.’

      Not all, but the gist of it. Thankfully some bubbles of resistance are starting to form in the US, but the main people who were elected to uphold the law and fight this democraticly are already bribed or blackmailed, so it’s in great part up to the people, and whatever stance the army ends up taking when they are forced to choose between loyalty to the constitution, or an individual.

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        37 minutes ago

        the scientists were smart enough to flee Germany or places that nazis occupied. i see this going to happen with USa if not already, US already has a problem with shortages in some areas of stem. its a complex set of problems all around, this latest fiasco just adds into it.

    • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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      1 hour ago

      Usually I respect the honesty more than the subterfuge.

      But when it’s Nazi’s. Nope. Wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire.

  • athairmor@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    How’d they get into his phone? Face or fingerprint?

    Make sure you turn off biometrics before traveling. They can’t force you to disclose a passcode.

    EDIT: Actually, if you have to travel to the USA, wipe your phone before you leave.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      9 hours ago

      IIRC they can compel you to unlock your phone. Or just deny you entry if you don’t. It’s best to make sure you travel with a ‘clean’ phone and PC, border patrol got ridiculous powers in the patriot act and nobody’s ever rolled any of it back despite decades of abuses.

    • Technoworcester@lemm.eeOP
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      9 hours ago

      They can still make your life difficult though. I think the better option is don’t fly into or through US territory if you can help it.

    • philpo@feddit.org
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      8 hours ago

      They will also ask you for your password for online accounts and refuse entry if you don’t. And as we have all seen recently that does not necessarily mean “next flight home”.

    • Sabin10@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      If you have an android device, setup a second user account with nothing on it and use that when going through customs.

    • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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      9 hours ago

      How’d they get into his phone? Face or fingerprint?

      I was looking for this as well. It seems like a rather important piece of info for the article to leave out.

  • Hikuro-93@lemmy.ca
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    8 hours ago

    Hey, that’s a good thing in my book, I guess.

    Same way as America prospered with talent fleeing a corrupt Europe in the past, now Europe can get that lost talent back from a corrupt America. The more they feel unwelcome and undervalued the more they will flock or stay wherever their talent can flourish and advance our progress as a society.

    No complaints from me on that. 🤷‍♂️

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      8 hours ago

      It’s “voluntary” in the sense that either you allow it or you don’t get into the country.

          • Aatube@kbin.melroy.org
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            7 hours ago

            A 2-1 circuit split means that the 2 currently prevails, thus making border searching of electronics illegal unless you’re within the 11th’s jurisdiction (Florida, Georgia, Alabama, while the guy was arrested traveling to a Texas conference), no?

            In 2014, the US Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Riley v. California, which held that law enforcement officials violated the Fourth Amendment when they searched an arrestee’s cellphone without a warrant. The court explained, “Modern cell phones are not just another technological convenience. With all they contain and all they may reveal, they hold for many Americans ‘the privacies of life.’ The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the Founders fought.”[15]

            In 2013, before Riley was decided, the Ninth Circuit court of appeals held that reasonable suspicion is required to subject a computer seized at the border to forensic examination. […] In May of 2018, in U.S. v. Kolsuz, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that it is unconstitutional for US border officials to subject visitors’ devices to forensic searches without individualized suspicion of criminal wrongdoing.[22] Just five days later, in U.S. v. Touset, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals split with the Fourth and Ninth Circuits, ruling that the Fourth Amendment does not require suspicion for forensic searches of electronic devices at the border.[23] The existence of a circuit split is one of the factors that the Supreme Court of the United States considers when deciding whether to grant review of a case.[24]

            • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              7 hours ago

              I’m just gonna go out on a limb here and say they’re ignoring whatever court precedent actually exists at this point anyway.

              Also, a phrase I’ve heard a lot “you can beat the charge but you can’t beat the ride.” Meaning, like Luigi Mangione, you can argue in court about illegal seizures after it has already happened. I’m guessing most border patrol agents just plan on losing court cases like this, because they know, in the moment, they can get away with it.

              I mean they fucking tortured a white European green card holder recently.

              • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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                25 minutes ago

                I mean they fucking tortured a white European green card holder recently.

                What is this news? I haven’t heard of that yet.

                • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  15 minutes ago

                  https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2025-03-14/green-card-holder-from-new-hampshire-interrogated-at-logan-airport-detained

                  “It was just said that his green card was flagged,” said Astrid Senior, his mother. She said she didn’t hear from her son directly until Tuesday, when she learned he’d been hospitalized.

                  Senior described Schmidt being “violently interrogated” at Logan Airport for hours, and being stripped naked, put in a cold shower by two officials, and being put back onto a chair.

                  She said Schmidt told her immigration agents pressured him to give up his green card. She said he was placed on a mat in a bright room with other people at the airport, with little food or water, suffered sleep deprivation, and was denied access to his medication for anxiety and depression.

                  “He hardly got anything to drink. And then he wasn’t feeling very well and he collapsed,” said Senior.

                  He was transported by ambulance to Mass General Hospital. He didn’t know it at the time, but he also had influenza.

                  On Tuesday, Schmidt was transported to the regional headquarters for ICE in Burlington, Massachusetts, and then transferred to the Wyatt facility. The family, including his partner, who is a cardiologist in Nashua, have acquired attorneys and been working with the German consulate in hopes to have him released on bail.

                  Schmidt and his mother moved to the U.S. in 2007, and received green cards in 2008. He moved from California to New Hampshire in 2022.

                  Senior described her son as a hardworking electrical engineer with a partner and 8-year-old daughter who are both U.S. citizens.