NASA Engineer Required To Unlock Phone At Border

A U.S.-born NASA engineer was required to unlock his mobile phone after he had just returned from a trip overseas. 35-year old Sidd Bikkannavar had just arrived at the George Bush International Airport in Houston after going on a nine-hour flight from Santiago, Chile. The engineer went to Chile to compete in a two-week race going from the southern tip of the country all the way to its capital in a solar powered car.

The NASA engineer posted on social media site Facebook about how officers from the US Customs and Border Protection had ordered him to provide them with his cell phone and password before they allowed him to enter the George Bush International Airport. In the Facebook post which was shared by his friend on Twitter, the 35-year old says he was detained by Homeland Security along with others who were "stranded because of the Muslim ban."

"I initially refused since it's a (NASA)-issued phone and I must protect access", said Bikkannavar. "Just to be clear - I'm a US-born citizen and NASA engineer, travelling with a US passport. Once they took both my phone and the access PIN, they returned me to the holding area with cots and other sleeping detainees until they finished copying my data."

Bikkannavar said he returned to the US shortly after President Donald Trump signed an executive order which blocked immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. Ever since the order was imposed, a Muslim civil rights organization says it has already filed 10 complaints with CBP, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice. The organization alleges that American-Muslim citizens are being systematically targeted for enhanced screening by the CBP.

Trump's ban has since been blocked in court, but the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has reported increased scrutiny of social media accounts and mobile phones owned by American-Muslims ever since the ban was imposed, according to a report from CNN. Wilfredo A. Ruiz, a spokesperson for CAIR-Florida and Muslim convert, says citizens are required to surrender their mobile phones and laptops whenever a border agent asks for them, but not their passwords or personal social media information.