Borders

Border Agents Nabbed Their Phones. These Two Floridians Are Fighting Back.

A former assistant state attorney and an immigrant rights activist both had their phones seized, despite having attorney-client privilege. They're suing to protect their data.

Matthew Petti | 10.1.2026 1:30 PM

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(Adani Samat/Midjourney)

Jalal "Jay" Shehadeh had no reason to believe he was under suspicion from the government. A former assistant state attorney in Florida, he traveled frequently without problems and was preapproved for fast-track border access under the Global Entry program. And he had no problem getting through Israel's notoriously strict airport security while visiting family in the Palestinian territories. But on the way home, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) held Shehadeh for four hours at Newark Liberty International Airport with no explanation and seized his cellphone.

"I'm sitting there and nobody's even telling me why I'm here. It's a very bizarre thing to be an American coming into America, being put into a room like this when you're coming home," Shehadeh, who was born in New Jersey and spent several years of his childhood in the West Bank, tells Reason. "It's wild to think a Palestinian who grew up in Palestine was able to get through border control in Tel Aviv in less than 10 minutes, but this is what happens to me when I come into the United States."

Under the "border exemption" to the Fourth Amendment, the government has the power to search travelers entering the country for contraband. Courts are divided on whether this authority includes travelers' electronic data, and while the Supreme Court considers whether to weigh in on the question, CBP has gotten increasingly brazen about using this authority. From April to June this year, CBP conducted a record-high 14,899 electronic searches at the border.

This week, both Shehadeh and Ph.D. student Thomas Kennedy sued CBP to get their phone data back. Although the two plaintiffs weren't aware of each other when they sued, the cases have an uncanny resemblance to each other. Both U.S. citizens live in Florida. Both are politically outspoken. Both were traveling back from the Middle East. And both had their phones taken despite warning CBP about attorney-client privileged data. They are suing to have the government not only return their property but also delete any copies CBP made.

Attorney-client privilege, a centuries-old privacy protection, forbids the government or anyone else from snooping into conversations between lawyers and the people they........

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