IANAL, but as a green card holder my lawyer told me they cannot deny you entry without an order from an immigration judge (likely if travel was not brief - more than 180 days, or they engaged in illegal activity after leaving the United States as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(13)) - you only have to answer questions about your name and status, nothing more - though, obviously it will likely cause delays.

Still, give them the code if you want.

It's similar in Canada; permanent residents and citizens have the legal right to reentry and it can't be denied. But that right applies to you, not anything you are carrying. Play that game and you'll probably lose the device to border security.

Damn. I was fairly certain that U.S. citizens are not subject to such warrantless searches and confiscations, but yet: https://informationsecurity.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toru...

It's pretty unbelievable that you have reduced constitutional rights as a citizen re-entering the country.

Losing the device in such circumstances is definitively the best outcome. There is a shit ton of data that these devices have and the law is so complex that you probably committed a crime somewhere without you realizing it.

They may not be able to deny entry, but they can hold you indefinitely with no limit even if you’re a citizen.

Can they deny your request for an attorney?

Yikes, I don't know about border detentions. The right to representation attaches (generally) at the start of criminal proceedings, pursuant to the 6th Amend. Is a border detention a criminal proceeding? Probably it's just some sort of administrative function and so your rights are certainly much slimmer at this point.

Good choice. The only circumstances where it’s not a big risk to withhold your PIN is when you are a citizen entering your home country. Even then they can turn it into a pretty nasty time for you (as seen by the guy in the article, where they threaten to just keep his stuff).

Depends how much you want to visit the country in question. I will be bummed if I am blocked from visiting EU (I am US citizen) but any other country is kinda irrelevant. If Japan put me on no travel list, I would not care one bit.

There is inconvenience of being deported but frankly risk of giving access to all clouds account to random official is just too high.

There is also risk of them putting you in jail but I am not sure if unblocking phone really mitigate it.

All the deportations I’ve heard of where the person arrived by air, they were jailed until they could be put on a flight back. They only say “you can’t come in, now go away” if you’re crossing a border by land - and plenty of countries are going to refuse to let you walk away even then.