CBP Confirms Foreign Entry Rules Unchanged Under Trump
(MENAFN) US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials at Washington Dulles Airport have clarified that no new entry procedures have been implemented for foreign nationals arriving in the United States since President Donald Trump began his second term in January.
CBP officers retain the legal authority to deny entry to travelers, even those holding valid visas, for a variety of reasons. These include possession of prohibited plants, inappropriate photos on personal devices, or certain content found on social media platforms.
Amid rising reports of travelers allegedly being turned away over their support for Gaza, anxiety has grown among those seeking entry to the US.
During a visit arranged by the US State Department’s Foreign Press Center, Matthew Armour, the CBP supervisor at Washington Dulles, described the passenger screening process to media.
When asked if foreign visitors face tougher scrutiny under the Trump administration, Armour responded: “Nothing has changed. We are continuing to operate according to the same laws and regulations.”
Armour confirmed that social media and phone checks may occur during what is known as “secondary screening.”
One notable case involves Rasha Alawieh, an assistant professor at Brown University, who arrived at Boston Logan Airport on March 13. Court documents and US media revealed that photos on her phone included images of the late Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, as well as scenes from a memorial in Beirut.
Following a CBP interview, Alawieh was denied entry and sent back to Lebanon on the next available flight.
Addressing the scope of phone inspections, Armour said: “So the key word there is ‘if needed.’
It's not a carte blanche inspection. We're not just arbitrarily just going through every single corner of a phone. So, there is generally going to be a targeted search. We're looking for something specific and it's based on your individual inspection.”
Confirming the agency’s power to review social media, he added: “So social media is generally something, if we're going to go through that, that's going to be in a secondary inspection environment. And that's looking for the additional information of, why are you coming here? What is the purpose of your travel, those sorts of things. So that's where you're most likely going to see that.”
Armour underscored that these investigative measures are reserved for particular cases and are not broadly applied: “Is it within our authority to search those items, it is. But we use our discretion when we're looking to use that that search parameter.”
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