Citizen or not—anyone can be searched at the border. Border agents may search messages, photos, and other intimate data on your personal phone, tablet, or other devices. Host Ramya Krishnan hears from documentary filmmaker Akram Shibly about his experience being detained and having his phone searched—twice—by officials at the U.S.-Canadian border. Knight Institute attorney Stephanie Krent addresses the constitutionality of such searches and why warrants should be required.

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Dating back to the Obama administration, the U.S. government has been using its authority over the border to justify the surveillance of visitors’ and immigrants’ social media accounts. Host Anna Diakun explores the chilling effect this digital surveillance has on the speech and associations of millions of people around the world. Guest Faiza Patel, Senior Director of the Liberty and National Security Project at the Brennan Center for Justice, discusses not only the legal concerns raised by the government's social media surveillance program but also the lack of evidence that it serves any national security purpose. Journalist and 404 Media co-founder Joseph Cox shares his findings about the array of surveillance technologies purchased by the government, and explains just how much we don’t know about how the government uses the information it obtains to make immigration and other law enforcement decisions.

Views on First is brought to you by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Please subscribe and leave a review. We’d love to know what you think.

To learn more about the Knight Institute, visit our website, knightcolumbia.org, and follow us on social media.

From the war on anarchism to President Trump’s extreme vetting policies, the U.S. government’s practice of using the border as a justification to exclude ideas considered “dangerous” is as American as apple pie. In the first episode of “Views on First: Speech & the Border,” host George Wang invites lawyer and historian Julia Rose Kraut to explore the history of ideological exclusion and the government’s authority to bar individuals from the country on the basis of their speech, beliefs, and associations. Illustrating how these policies continue to bear on noncitizens today, immigration activist Ravi Ragbir shares his ongoing fight with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s attempt to target him for deportation based on his activism and organizing.

Views on First is brought to you by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Please subscribe and leave a review. We’d love to know what you think.

To learn more about the Knight Institute, visit our website, knightcolumbia.org, and follow us on social media.