Homeland Security Targets Citizens Not Criminals. Under the Pretext of Fighting Crime It has Seized $2 Billion from Travelers Since 2000, Most Victims Were Never Charged w/a Crime

From [HERE] Anthonia Nwaorie headed to a Houston airport with more than $41,000 in her bags in 2017, planning to use the cash to build a free medical clinic for women and girls in her native Nigeria, according to a lawsuit. But the registered nurse was stopped on the boarding bridge by agents from Customs and Border Protection, who claimed she failed to report taking more than $10,000 out of the country as required by federal law. Nwaorie’s currency was seized and though she was never charged with a crime, it took months and a legal battle before CBP returned the money without conditions. Such seizures are hardly unique. More than $2 billion was taken from travelers at the nation’s airports by the CBP and other agencies now associated with the Department of Homeland Security between 2000 and 2016, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis of a government database of every seizure.

Federal law allows CBP and other agencies to take cash from travelers as a way to combat drug trafficking and other criminal enterprises, but the new report by the Institute for Justice found nearly 70 percent of such cases are like Nwaorie’s — no arrest accompanies a seizure.

Law enforcement agencies across the country routinely seize currency from innocent travelers using civil forfeiture—a legal process that allows agencies to take and keep property without ever charging owners with a crime, let alone convicting them of one. This is in contrast to criminal forfeiture, which requires that prosecutors secure a conviction against an owner before forfeiting their property through criminal procedures. Proceeds from both civil and criminal forfeitures are deposited into a federal forfeiture fund and later shared with seizing agencies.

Thanks to newly available data, this study is the first to quantify just how often CBP and other U.S. Department of Homeland Security agencies have seized currency at airports over the years—and just how much currency has flowed into the government’s coffers as a result.

Critics argue federal agencies are abusing civil forfeiture to fatten budgets, since the cash flows into government coffers and is redistributed. The report found DHS airport seizures have exploded over the decade-and-a-half studied, climbing 178 percent. In all, DHS agencies made more than 30,500 cash seizures during the period.

DHS agencies seize millions of dollars from thousands of individuals each year. Between 2000 and 2016, DHS agencies conducted at least 30,574 currency seizures at domestic airports, for an average of at least 1,798 seizure cases per year. All told, they seized at least $2 billion in currency over this period. And more than three-quarters of those seizures were of cash—an asset that can be quickly and easily deposited into government forfeiture accounts. Airport currency seizures have markedly increased in recent years. The value of currency seized at airports by DHS agencies more than doubled between 2000 and 2016, from at least $74 million in 2000 to at least $178 million in 2016 (Figure 1). The number of DHS agency currency seizure cases at airports likewise nearly tripled over this period, from 931 in 2000 to 2,592 in 2016.

Dulles International Airport led the nation in DHS seizures during 2016, the latest year for which data was available. About $41 million was taken from travelers, or nearly a quarter of the amount seized nationwide, according to the report. Dulles only accounts for 2 percent of the nation’s air travelers. Indeed, some media reports suggest DHS agents working at Dulles specifically target currency for seizure. For example, a Washington, D.C., news station reported that, from July 2017 to March 2018, CBP agents working at Dulles conducted 10 seizures of cash going to or coming from Ghana. In response to media inquiries about this trend, a CBP official stated, “We talk about a global economy—well, guess what? The bad guys and smugglers are also involved in the global economy.” But there is little evidence that agents were actually targeting “bad guys”: None of the money from any of the 10 seizures was linked to criminal activity.

The report states:

“The most common reason provided for airport currency seizures is a reporting violation. That is, the traveler allegedly failed to file required paperwork (Table 3). Federal law requires people to file a FinCEN Form 105 with CBP when they are traveling into or out of the country with $10,000 or more in currency. The law was originally intended to fight money laundering activities, such as smuggling proceeds from criminal enterprises out of the country in order to deposit it into a foreign bank account, thereby hiding the illicit activity. However, innocent travelers often violate this law unintentionally when leaving the United States: While CBP makes it quite clear travelers entering the country must report carrying more than $10,000, it does little to publicize the fact that those leaving the country must report carrying more than $10,000 as well.20 Individuals entering the country must pass through Customs, at which time they are provided with a declaration form and advised they must declare if they are traveling with more than $10,000, among other things. But when leaving the country, individuals are not required to clear Customs and are not automatically provided with any Customs forms. They therefore do not have the same opportunity to learn of the reporting requirements. Furthermore, while it is easy to locate a CBP agent in international arrival terminals, finding one on the departure side is much more difficult. [MORE]