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posted by martyb on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the can't-get-past-your-past dept.

A Canadian woman was issued a lifetime ban from entering the U.S. after officials searched her unlocked smartphone, found an email to her doctor about a fentanyl overdose she survived, and asked her questions about her past drug use:

A British Columbia woman was issued a lifetime ban at the US border after officials found an email with her doctor about a fentanyl overdose she survived a year ago.

Chelsea, 28, whose last name is being withheld due to fears that it could affect future employment, answered a series of questions about drug use while attempting to cross the Washington-British Columbia border. She said her phone, which didn't have a password, was searched for about two hours. During questioning after her phone was searched, she admitted to using illegal drugs before, including cocaine.

At the US border, the searching of electronic devices, including smartphones, is allowed as part of inspection. Warrantless searches on phones are also allowed at the Canadian border—a practice defense lawyers are trying to end.

"It was super violating—I couldn't believe they went into my sent emails folder and found something from a year ago that was addressed to my doctor," Chelsea said. "It was really humiliating, and it felt terrible having to bring that up."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently released a one-page security assessment of the U.S.-Canadian border that identified drug smuggling (including cocaine and fentanyl) as well as "unidentified [Canadian] homegrown violent extremists" as security challenges:

The drugs that are commonly transported into Canada from the United States are cocaine and methamphetamine. Ecstasy, fentanyl and marijuana are smuggled into the U.S. from Canada.

[...] "This report identifies several areas where we can improve border security — especially in combating drug trafficking and preventing potential acts of terrorism," Katko, R-Camillus, said. "Stopping the influx of drugs coming into our country through the northern border is of particular concern, given the heroin and opioid epidemic plaguing central New York."


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Thursday August 17 2017, @06:52PM (10 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 17 2017, @06:52PM (#555498)

    Because the government powns her medical records, email service, phone manufacturer, phone OS devs, and app devs, that "We, uh, looked at your email app" is just polite conversation version of they looked in fifteen databases that they'd prefer not to discuss in public. This is why I'm not very concerned about border cops and my phone. They pown everything about it top to bottom, so getting pissed off only about it being out of my hands for a moment misses kinda the bigger point about your phone being an extension of big brother ALL THE TIME.

    Secondly border cops are above the law, literally, and it might be yet another polite conversation version of "we saw pictures in your gallery of you burning crosses in some black dudes front yard, but to be polite and somewhat less controversial we're gonna say merely that you overdosed some years back". You can die on hill A, or die on hill B, may as well pick the easier one.

    You have to realistic about possible setups. I mean seriously, I F-d my back up once, long story, why would I have an email conversation about it with my doctor, why the hell would I keep that email conversation for over a year... What would an email conversation even be about "Nancy Reagan says just say no to drugs!". I mean seriously? Something is VERY fishy here. Even F-d up american medical billing doesn't usually take a year to process and the bill wouldn't say "heroin analog overdose treatment" anyway, at least not directly, and she's Canadian so supposedly their medical system kicks our medical system's butt. My guess is polite conversation problem #3 is the email conversation is some ongoing thing about how the doc is an american citizen she's going to illegally marry in one of those immigration scams, but just to be polite we'll talk about your overdose. Or she knows she's been banned for attempted smuggling or bending some visa rule right to the point of breaking, so knowing she's gonna get banned anyway for whatever historical reasons, she plants a medical email in there to make ourguys look bad. Sometimes its the little details that are super sketchy that are skipped over real fast so people don't notice, that change the whole tone of the discussion when its pointed out. I donno who planted or planned this, or why, but that is likely to be a hell of a lot more interesting story than "cops harass opiate addict".

    This does have the symptoms of having passed thru the politeness filter. You can have awkward arguments about if she really loves the guy she's going to attempt a suspected marriage of convenience with to obtain citizenship. You can argue endlessly about if her blood opiate levels are so high right now that transporting her blood means smuggling opiates. You can argue forever about maybe she's a steaming jackass and she's pissed off so many agents and supervisors on some BS or another that they're just sick of her, some people are just too antisocial to be part of society. But its pretty concrete and unarguable that they can have a management style bad news discussion about her documented heroin overdose so bye bye. Very much "put Al Capone in jail for IRS reasons" when you know darn well he's a leader of killers but its too much work to do it the right way.

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  • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Thursday August 17 2017, @08:18PM (2 children)

    by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 17 2017, @08:18PM (#555543)
    Be sure to take off your tinfoil hat before entering border control.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @11:08PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @11:08PM (#555610)

      border control

      control

      trololol

      • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday August 18 2017, @12:08AM

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday August 18 2017, @12:08AM (#555640) Homepage

        As retarded and worthless as this post is, I can always appreciate new ways to express things like convincing echoes using simple text tools. It evokes a feeling of not only reverb, but delay.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Thursday August 17 2017, @08:35PM (1 child)

    by Arik (4543) on Thursday August 17 2017, @08:35PM (#555554) Journal
    That was hilarious.

    Sheer unadulterated fiction, spun from nothing, with what passes around here for a 'straight face.'

    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday August 19 2017, @02:45PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 19 2017, @02:45PM (#556366)

      What the original agitprop or my sorta-conspiratorial counterspin on it? I think mine, beat theirs, WRT creativity, style, and believability. I simply posted a better story than a "professional" journalist. Of course outwriting a modern journalist is kind of like being the best midget basketball player, but hey I still kicked some butt, even if it was lame butt.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday August 18 2017, @05:09AM (4 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 18 2017, @05:09AM (#555717) Journal
    I'd like to have due process here rather than a fairy tale about how much she had it coming. This story alleges that they accessed medical records (which is what an email to your doctor is) and no reason has been given for this two hour search. Sorry, I'm not willing to take it on high fantasy that the subject of this search did something wrong or deserves somehow to be prevented from entering the US.
    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday August 19 2017, @02:59PM (3 children)

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 19 2017, @02:59PM (#556369)

      a fairy tale about how much she had it coming.

      Given the circumstances behind the agitprop are incredibly suspicious, I'd agree with you that a "she had it coming" is not the only possible strategy. She could, for example, be over the top stupid, told the agent she's trying to smuggle farm produce past the border AND she's a druggie, and the agitprop is only focusing on the drugs because drugs should be legal, and ignoring she's an idiot. But its more fun to contemplate she had it coming for reasons of her own volition rather than being born with a lack of brain power. Or there's other spins too, of course.

      None the less I think my greatest contribution is identifying the agitprop as mere agitprop and WTFing about the strange glossed over details, and my theories about WHY the details are glossed over are weaker and fundamentally not required to make the main point of its not news but merely agitprop with some really weird semi-hidden back story.

      Another weird part of the agitprop is normalizing the idea that our country should be a dumping ground for druggies. Why should we shit were we sleep? Seems a very strange concept to try and normalize. Lets say instead of a druggie chick it was a male child rapist. Keeping a child rapist out of the country would reduce the overall quality of the USA ... how exactly? I mean, what did we REALLY lose here by keeping her out? Or maybe the agitprop message is actions should not have consequences, again, I'm just not feeling it. Maybe the funniest part of the story is they kept her name secret because her drug history would make her unemployable, so its vitally important we import as many unemployable people into the USA as possible because... um... why is that a worthy goal again? I mean if this chick isn't good for anything but at absolute best becoming a lot lizard at a truck stop, why do we need to shame American immigration policy into letting people like her in? Is there a shortage of lot lizards I don't know about? I mean Canadian women are generally hotter than USA women, but still...

      The more you think about it, the weirder the agitprop story sounds.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday August 20 2017, @11:02AM (2 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 20 2017, @11:02AM (#556644) Journal
        While you bring up an excellent point - we are hearing only one side of the story, it remains that this is something border agents can do. Without greater transparency on the decision making of the US border agents, we have nothing to contradict the story.

        Second, we don't need to come up with this weird agitprop story to explain potential dishonesty on the part of the traveler. They'll have natural behavioral tendencies to exaggerate their side of the story. Similarly, this story is coming from a source (Vice.com) that tends to exaggerate such things as well. I suppose that's what agitprop is, but I don't think we need to get all mystical about it.

        It remains that we have not established that this would-be visitor or immigrant would cause problems for the US. That remains a completely unfounded fantasy you've spun.

        Finally, what's with the hate for druggies? There's a huge number of people who take such mind-altering drugs in the US, most who are hard working and productive, contrary to the stereotype. In addition to the relatively light weight drugs like caffeine and nicotine, we have alcohol, a variety of prescription anti-depressants and minor tranquilizers (like Xanax or Valium), and of course, the illegal recreational drugs. I believe you'll find that a very high percentage of the US population is a druggie of some sort, often by necessity to treat a medical condition. And yet we're at a pretty high level of employment these days.
        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 21 2017, @01:50PM (1 child)

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 21 2017, @01:50PM (#557020)

          It remains that we have not established that this would-be visitor or immigrant would cause problems for the US.

          Drugs are or are not good can't be resolved in the context of the story, but it does seem that if they're good then she's no problem and if drugs are not good then she's problematic.

          Finally, what's with the hate for druggies?

          There's a spectrum and there's not much worse than overdosing heroin addicts. There's worse, but not much. Hopefully the agents are also keeping the "even worse" out of the country.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 21 2017, @10:07PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 21 2017, @10:07PM (#557248) Journal
            I suppose so, but I see two points to keep in mind. First, the US does a bunch of productive people who otherwise would be classified as druggies. So I'm not seeing the justification for keeping this particular person out of the US based on your past narrative. Second, I don't trust the border guard. Life time ban based on illegal drug use sounds pretty shifty to me. Perhaps, we should clean out the department and put in competent people who can find and express real reasons for life time bans and other serious judgments?