Border agents have illegally turned away asylum seekers, new report claims

According to a new report from Human Rights First, agents from Customs and Border Protection—an agency riddled with so much corruption that DHS last year said it constituted “a national security threat”—have been “turning away foreign nationals who arrive at the Mexican border seeking asylum from persecution in their homelands.”

Not only is this morally reprehensible, it’s illegal. Under the law, CBP agents are to take any individuals seeking asylum “into custody, and eventually direct them to an asylum officer who assesses the validity of their claim.”

But according to some of the cases described in the Human Rights First report, agents have reportedly told asylum seekers that “Trump says we don’t have to let you in,” and “the United States is not giving asylum anymore”:
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/1665651

What If U.S. Border Agents Ask for Your Cellphone? -- NBC News

If you say yes, it will take Customs and Border Protection Agents 30 minutes to search your phone. If you say no, you are taking a risk, say experts....
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/what-if-u-s-border-agents-ask-your-cellphone-n742511

A Guide to Getting Past Customs With Your Digital Privacy Intact (WIRED)

Our rough guide to minimizing data invasion at the American border. ...
https://www.wired.com/2017/02/guide-getting-past-customs-digital-privacy-intact/

Customs agents accused of targeting people from nations not in Trump’s travel ban

Lawmakers, lawyers, and migrants say federal agents are misusing a form to get travelers to relinquish visas and green cards....
https://thinkprogress.org/border-patrol-visa-holders-5c072acf1d83#.76tek74ik