(You can beat the system by identifying as Somalian and carrying millions out in suitcases.)
If you get stopped at an airport security checkpoint with $100 or more in cash, Transportation Security Administration agents can fleece you.
TSA has stripped more than 10,000 travelers of their money since 2014, but the supposed “criminals” are almost never charged after their cash is taken.
A class-action federal court case could finally end this outrage.
“TSA has secret policies that tell its screeners that they must seize travelers’ cash,” Dan Alban, the lawyer leading a nationwide class-action suit against the agency, tells me. Alban is with the Institute for Justice, which is fighting to stop airport checkpoints from being Constitution-free zones.
Federal law prohibits travelers from taking more than $10,000 in cash out of or into the United States without filling out an official form.
But traveling inside America with hefty amounts of cash is perfectly legal. That doesn’t stop TSA from plundering passengers on any and every BS pretext.
Alban appeared in federal court this month to argue his case in Pittsburgh with Rebecca Brown, the lead plaintiff.
In August 2019, 57-year-old Brown was flying out of Pittsburgh International Airport carrying her father’s life savings — $82,373 — which he wanted her to deposit in a joint bank account near her Boston home.
A TSA agent noticed the Tupperware loaded with the cash while scanning Brown’s luggage and summoned a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, who speedily announced he was seizing the money.
There was never any allegation Brown came by the money illegally.
After the media publicized a lawsuit challenging the seizure, the TSA returned the money seven months later.
But legions of similar travelers continue to be victimized across the land.
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