Does the First Amendment hold at the border?

But the photojournalists found it improbable that they were suspected of breaking any laws. Were they being targeted because they were members of the press? Was the government trying to obtain access to their source lists and the intelligence they’d gathered in the course of their reporting? Suspicions to that effect were bolstered when The Intercept reported on an apparent pattern: U.S. and Mexican authorities seemed to be coordinating harassment of the journalists. Then a leak from an anonymous source at the Department of Homeland Security added clarity. “The [U.S.] government had listed their names in a secret database of targets, where agents collected information on them,” an NBC affiliate in San Diego reported. “Some had alerts placed on their passports, keeping at least two photojournalists and an attorney from entering Mexico to work.”

If accurate, that is a serious abuse of power: The government allegedly jeopardized the livelihood of these journalists, as well as their ability to relay useful information to Americans. A government spokesperson told CNN at the time that Customs and Border Protection “does not target journalists for inspection based on their occupation or their reporting.” But in one case, a Mexican border official who turned one of the photojournalists away told her he was doing so at the behest of the American government.