1. United States
2. S.C.
3. Letter

DHS got rejected by a Federal judge twice, so it used an obscure customs law to spy on journalists. The Trump administration has been secretly obtaining private records on journalists, unions, and nonprofits using an obscure customs law — 19 USC 1509 — that requires no judicial oversight whatsoever. A DHS official’s signature is all it takes. No judge. No probable cause. No notification to the target. Here is what that looks like in practice. Minneapolis journalist Georgia For — already facing federal charges for covering an anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church — had six months of phone records obtained by DHS from T-Mobile without her knowledge. That was more than 10,000 calls and texts. A federal judge had already rejected a separate warrant request for her and journalist Don Lemon’s YouTube data twice, finding no probable cause. Less than a month after that judicial rejection, DHS simply served Google with a summons under the customs statute, sidestepping the judge entirely to get the same data. Google refused. T-Mobile complied. Experts called it an “improper use” of a law designed strictly for customs violations. Former DHS lawyer Chris Duncan said the law has nothing to do with journalism, church protests, or immigration matters. Former DHS Inspector General John Roth called it “outrageous conduct” and said “it’s hard to know where to begin.” This is not a customs investigation. This is an administration that was rejected twice by a federal judge, decided the judiciary was an inconvenience, and found a backdoor to conduct the same surveillance anyway — on journalists covering protests, on unions, on nonprofits. A government that cannot get a warrant goes around the warrant. That is not law enforcement. That is a police state. We demand that Congress immediately investigate DHS’s use of 19 USC 1509 against journalists and civil society organizations, pass legislation closing this loophole to require judicial oversight for all such records requests, and drop the politically motivated charges against Georgia Fort and Don Lemon. The First Amendment does not have a customs exception.