Posted on 07/31/2020 8:15:03 AM PDT by RandFan
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other Department of Homeland Security agents seized more than $2 billion in cash from travelers in U.S. airports between 2000 and 2016, according to a new report by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm.
The institute's report is the first to comprehensively analyze the use of civil asset forfeiture by federal law enforcement in airports, where multiple news investigations have revealed horror stories of passengers having their money taken even though they weren't ever charged with a crime.
Take a case that Reason covered: Rustem Kazazi, a U.S. citizen who tried in 2018 to get on a plane to return to his native Albania from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Kazazi had roughly $58,000 in cash in his luggage, money he said he was taking to repair a house he owned and possibly to buy another. Kazazi was strip-searched by CBP agents, who also seized his life savings. The agency claimed the cash was "involved in a smuggling/drug trafficking/money laundering operation," despite there being no proof of that.
CBP failed to file a claim against Kazazi's money within the 90-day deadline, and then failed to return his money after the deadline passed. Last year, the U.S. government agreed to return nearly all of the cash, although Kazazi says it seized $770 more than it admitted.
Then there's the case of Anthonia Nwaorie, a Houston woman who had $41,000 in cash seized by CBP at an airport in 2018. The money was earmarked for a children's hospital in Nigeria. Kazazi and and Nwaorie's cases are just two of 30,000 cash seizures at airports across the country, according to the report.
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(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
I have no sympathy for idiots who refuse to simply fill out a customs declaration. Its not hard and we have the law for a reason.
When King George did that it caused a rebellion. We made Constitutional laws against it. Perhaps we should dust of that old Constitution thingie.
Maybe but the LEOs are still stealing and pocketing the cash, regardless of fine legal points.
People in some countries are afraid that a criminal working at the bank will call up his armed confederates and say, we got a guy from America taking out 50 thousand, hurry up and get here.
At this point in American history the 4th amendment does not apply if the government official say “drugs” or “terrorism”. Anywhere in the US they can decided you have too much cash and just take it. Too bad so sad.
You are aware that drug pushers keep all their money in cash. Why would any ligitimant person travel with thousands of dollars in a suit case???
That way the transaction can also be documented and notarized for the protection of both parties.
You are aware that we are innocent until proven guilty and it’s neither yours nor the government’s damned business as to why a person wants to do their business in cash.
> Why would any legitimate person travel with thousands of dollars in a suit case??? <
You’ve got to be careful with that kind of argument. Because it can easily lead to:
- Why would any legitimate person want to stay quiet when questioned by the police?
- Why would any legitimate person object to his house being searched without a warrant?
Etc.
The next thing you know, the Bill of Rights is history.
The reason? The difficulty in transferring money here, and he did not quite trust banks.
Even when we lived in the US he paid cash instead of a credit cards.
Now all the newspapers are discussing a cashless society, but a lot of older folks distrust ordering things by internet, and I won't trust my credit card at the nearby mall for fear it will be hacked.
As long as you report the income for taxation the IRS don’t care. It can be illegally acquired, there’s that whole “other sources” section.
There are valid reasons to move cash. Many auctions are cash only. Including, amusingly enough, most police auctions of seized assets.
You’re whole argument is built under the same crap assumptions the government uses to limit our freedom.
Battle of Athens.
But they shouldn’t be able to. THAT’S the point. This is the big problem of modern asset seizure. The cops can just decide that’s “suspicious” take it, never charge you with anything, and never give it back. In a free society that respects the burden of proof this wouldn’t fly. But due to a government waging intellectual “wars” that it can never win, that it doesn’t actually want to win, we’ve bought into this terrible line of thinking that causes people to accept it. Heck you even cheer this wrong headed tyranny on. It should NOT happen that the government can just say “oh that’s a lot of cash, ours now”.
Heck, we paid cash for a car at a dealership, because we had to move quickly, and couldn’t transfer the money to the correct accounts, they didn’t take 3rd-party checks, or allow credit cards. So we just dropped $7000 in cash on the desk.
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