CBP Workers Reportedly Used Government Databases To Track Exes and Romantic Interests.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees and contractors have been accused of using powerful government databases to look up romantic interests, former partners, neighbors, and coworkers, while other cases involved allegations that sensitive information was passed to suspected smugglers and drug traffickers.
The documents were acquired by Wired through Freedom of Information Act requests to CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, and cover more than a decade of allegations, from 2009 through 2022.
The outlet identified nearly 300 data-related entries. Of those, 138 were referred to CBP management for review, and 78 were assigned to criminal investigators with the Office of Professional Responsibility. Another 43 were categorized as “Information Only,” meaning OPR did not open its own investigation.
The allegations range from personal snooping to potentially serious corruption. In one 2010 case, a customs officer allegedly searched for information about an Air New Zealand flight attendant and then used the information to contact the person. Another officer was investigated in 2017 after allegedly misusing government databases to harass an airline employee.
Other employees allegedly searched for information about neighbors and former spouses. In a 2022 case, an employee was accused of using a CBP database to obtain an ex-husband’s leave schedule as part of an alleged harassment campaign.
Trusted-traveler information was also allegedly exploited. According to the records, an officer was accused in 2013 of accessing SENTRI applications, which contain personal and travel information from prescreened travelers, to ask people out.
The records do not establish that every allegation was substantiated. Many cases were closed without publicly available information explaining their outcomes, and resolution fields were frequently blank or withheld.
CBP told Wired that privacy laws restrict what it can disclose about individual cases, but said allegations of misconduct are investigated and can result in corrective or disciplinary action.
Some allegations went far beyond personal curiosity. In 2016, investigators examined an accusation that a CBP employee was providing database information to a drug-trafficking organization.
In another case from 2021, a Border Patrol agent was accused of running database searches to tell smugglers which lane they should use at the border. WIRED also identified 99 entries involving alleged breaches or unauthorized disclosures and 48 explicitly involving improper database queries.
At least six cases involved employees searching for themselves, something former OPR chief Daniel Altman told the publication investigators viewed as a possible warning sign because self-searches have surfaced in corruption cases.
CBP and other immigration authorities can draw on systems containing travel records, immigration files, fingerprints, watch lists, and other personal information. Their tools have expanded to include facial recognition, license-plate information, mobile-device extraction technology and commercially acquired location data.
A separate 2023 DHS inspector general investigation found that CBP, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Secret Service had purchased and used commercial telemetry data without fully complying with department privacy policies or establishing adequate policies governing its use.
One internal case involved a DHS employee who allegedly used private software to track the locations of several coworkers’ cell phones, apparently marking the first publicly reported internal abuse case involving DHS personnel and commercially obtained mobile location data.
