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Senior News Editor since 2004
https://nypost.com/2018/08/24/muslim-woman-says-border-cops-stole-data-from-her-phone/
Muslim woman says border cops stole data from her phone
By Lia Eustachewich
August 24, 2018 | 12:17pm | Updated
A Muslim woman from Staten Island claims agents with US Customs and Border Protection illegally copied personal data from her cellphone that they snatched without a warrant, according to a new lawsuit.
Rejhane Lazoja is suing the agency for allegedly violating her constitutional rights after she touched down at Newark Liberty International Airport after a nine-hour flight on Feb. 26.
In the suit filed Thursday in New Jersey federal court, Lazoja alleges that instead of being welcomed back into her home country
, she was questioned, searched and then taken into a small room, where her iPhone 6S Plus was illegally taken by two CBP agents.
One of the agents “asked me to unlock my iPhone, but did not state a reason for me to unlock my iPhone,” Lazoja says in an affidavit. “Since there was no stated reason for me to unlock my iPhone, I refused.”
The 39-year-old mom, who has an American passport and was traveling from Zurich, Switzerland, with her 6-year-old daughter, explained that her phone contained photos of her without her hijab on. It’s against Muslim beliefs for a woman to be seen without her hijab by men who aren’t family members.
At one point, Lazoja asked whether she needed a lawyer, but the agents told her there was no need to contact one.
Without a warrant, they confiscated her phone and kept it for nearly five months, she says. When she finally got it back, she claims the agency refused to destroy copies of her personal information taken from the phone — or say what it did with it.
“While defendants returned Ms. Lazoja’s cell phone 130 days after it was seized, they refuse to state what they did with her personal data, what third parties her personal data was shared with, and if, let alone when, they will return her data,” the suit says.
CBP also never “articulated a reasonable suspicion for seizing the phone, let alone probable cause, let alone produced a warrant to search or seize plaintiff’s phone and personal data.”
In court papers, her lawyer Jay Rehman, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in New York, says he has yet to receive any assurance that the agency doesn’t possess information from Lazoja’s phone “or that they have not shared any data with third parties.”
Lazoja says her phone also contained “privileged legal communications” between her and CAIR, which filed the suit on her behalf.
“Americans don’t forfeit their Fourth Amendment rights against searches simply for going to the airport,” CAIR-NY legal director Albert Fox Cahn said in a statement. “If CBP wants to search our phones, or if they want to access our social media accounts and text messages, I have a simple answer: Get a warrant.”
A spokesman for CBP said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation but added, “All travelers arriving to the US are subject to CBP inspection.
“Failure to provide information to assist CBP may result in the detention and/or seizure of the electronic device,” he said. “All persons, baggage, and merchandise arriving in, or departing from, the US are subject to inspection, search and detention.”
Muslim woman says border cops stole data from her phone
By Lia Eustachewich
August 24, 2018 | 12:17pm | Updated
A Muslim woman from Staten Island claims agents with US Customs and Border Protection illegally copied personal data from her cellphone that they snatched without a warrant, according to a new lawsuit.
Rejhane Lazoja is suing the agency for allegedly violating her constitutional rights after she touched down at Newark Liberty International Airport after a nine-hour flight on Feb. 26.
In the suit filed Thursday in New Jersey federal court, Lazoja alleges that instead of being welcomed back into her home country
, she was questioned, searched and then taken into a small room, where her iPhone 6S Plus was illegally taken by two CBP agents.One of the agents “asked me to unlock my iPhone, but did not state a reason for me to unlock my iPhone,” Lazoja says in an affidavit. “Since there was no stated reason for me to unlock my iPhone, I refused.”
The 39-year-old mom, who has an American passport and was traveling from Zurich, Switzerland, with her 6-year-old daughter, explained that her phone contained photos of her without her hijab on. It’s against Muslim beliefs for a woman to be seen without her hijab by men who aren’t family members.
At one point, Lazoja asked whether she needed a lawyer, but the agents told her there was no need to contact one.
Without a warrant, they confiscated her phone and kept it for nearly five months, she says. When she finally got it back, she claims the agency refused to destroy copies of her personal information taken from the phone — or say what it did with it.
“While defendants returned Ms. Lazoja’s cell phone 130 days after it was seized, they refuse to state what they did with her personal data, what third parties her personal data was shared with, and if, let alone when, they will return her data,” the suit says.
CBP also never “articulated a reasonable suspicion for seizing the phone, let alone probable cause, let alone produced a warrant to search or seize plaintiff’s phone and personal data.”
In court papers, her lawyer Jay Rehman, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in New York, says he has yet to receive any assurance that the agency doesn’t possess information from Lazoja’s phone “or that they have not shared any data with third parties.”
Lazoja says her phone also contained “privileged legal communications” between her and CAIR, which filed the suit on her behalf.
“Americans don’t forfeit their Fourth Amendment rights against searches simply for going to the airport,” CAIR-NY legal director Albert Fox Cahn said in a statement. “If CBP wants to search our phones, or if they want to access our social media accounts and text messages, I have a simple answer: Get a warrant.”
A spokesman for CBP said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation but added, “All travelers arriving to the US are subject to CBP inspection.
“Failure to provide information to assist CBP may result in the detention and/or seizure of the electronic device,” he said. “All persons, baggage, and merchandise arriving in, or departing from, the US are subject to inspection, search and detention.”