The US is charging an American citizen for wiping his phone at the border

The government is prosecuting US citizen Sam Tunick for allegedly providing authorities with a “duress password” that wiped his phone when they tried to seize it at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport on January 24th, 2025. Federal agents detained Tunick at the airport, allegedly questioning him about child exploitation images. However, a motion filed by Tunick’s lawyers argues this was simply “a pretext for a fishing expedition into Mr Tunick’s connections” to the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta.

The government is turning to a little-known and rarely-used statute that makes it illegal to destroy or damage property to stop authorities from seizing it. They allege that Tunick used a feature of the privacy-focused GrapheneOS to wipe his phone by giving authorities a duress password, instead of the actual passcode to unlock the phone. The defense has argued that the detention and seizure were unlawful, and therefore all evidence should be tossed.

According to Tunick’s attorneys, agents refused him access to a lawyer, did not provide a warrant, or inform him of his legal rights. They also allege that access to his phone was sought under false pretenses. The government has countered that they were not required to produce a warrant because Tunick had not yet been granted permission to enter the US.

Marlon Kautz, a member of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, told the Guardian earlier this week that, “we all have a right to secure our private data against unconstitutional searches. And we should — especially in a time of rising authoritarianism.” Under the Trump administration, entering the US has become a much more fraught process, even for citizens who can face hours-long detention and scrutiny of social media accounts. Most agree the only way to protect your data is to delete it.