Court records show DHS used a child-abuse claim to conceal why it wanted an activist's phone

New court filings show that the Department of Homeland Security ordered Customs and Border Protection officers to stop Stop Cop City activist Samuel Tunick at an airport in January 2025 because he was suspected of “terrorist activities.” During the interrogation, however, officers told Tunick that they needed to search his phone for child sexual abuse material.

The distinction is not rhetorical. A screenshot of the alert and photographs of the encounter, reported by 404 Media, support Tunick's argument that officials concealed the actual investigative purpose of the search. Tunick has not been charged with terrorism or a child-abuse offence. He is charged under a federal evidence-destruction statute for what happened to his phone during the encounter.

Tunick eventually supplied a code for his Google Pixel running the privacy-focused GrapheneOS operating system. When an officer entered it, the device erased its contents. Prosecutors allege that he intentionally provided a duress credential to prevent the government taking custody of the data. His lawyers are asking the court to suppress the evidence, and no ruling has yet established whether the search or the seizure was lawful. The charge can carry up to five years in prison.

Border officials have unusually broad authority to inspect devices, but the newly disclosed pretext matters to a court assessing voluntariness and the government's account of probable purpose. Saying “child-abuse material” can also coerce compliance by making resistance appear suspicious, while withholding the political-surveillance context that would allow a traveller to understand the stakes.

The case therefore reaches beyond one phone feature. It tests whether the government may hide a politically sensitive investigative rationale behind an unrelated and inflammatory accusation, then prosecute the target for the technical consequence of resisting that search.