A Duress Password Wiped His Phone at a Border Search - Now He’s Charged
Something unexpected happened when Samuel Tunick handed border agents his phone passcode at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport in January 2025: the screen went blank, flashed several times, and the device wiped itself clean. Now Tunick is facing federal charges — and his case has become the first known prosecution in the United States tied to the use of a GrapheneOS duress password during a warrantless border search.
Key takeaways
- Samuel Tunick is the first known American federally charged for using a duress password to wipe his phone during a border search.
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped Tunick at Hartsfield-Jackson airport in January 2025 without a warrant, relying on the border search exception to the Fourth Amendment.
- The duress PIN is a feature of GrapheneOS, a hardened Android OS for Google Pixel phones — when entered, it instantly and irreversibly deletes encryption keys and wipes the device.
- Tunick faces charges under 18 U.S.C. § 2232, a rarely invoked federal statute that prohibits knowingly destroying property to prevent authorities from seizing it.
- His attorneys argue the detention and seizure were unlawful; a federal judge is expected to rule on a motion to suppress evidence later this year.
Samuel Tunick Charged for Using a Duress Password at the U.S. Border
The facts, as described in court filings, are striking in their simplicity. Tunick, an Atlanta activist, was returning from the Dominican Republic when U.S. Customs and Border Protection pulled him into a secondary inspection room. Agents demanded access to his phone — no warrant, no court order. Under the so-called border search exception, the U.S. government has long maintained it can search and seize devices without judicial approval until a traveler is formally permitted entry into the country.
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