We've traveled for 20 years and never searched except as part of an international border crossing, and even that was perfunctory. Have had fresh fruits confiscated at US/Canada border, though. However, any indication that guns or other weapons may be present can trigger a much more indepth inspection. A friend traveling with us had received a permit to bring a shotgun into Canada (totally legit) and was detained/searched for an hour anyway.
Generally speaking, neither your vehicle nor your RV home can be searched without due cause unless you give permission. Of course, if you deny permission at a checkpoint, you can be turned back.
That is wrong. The border patrol can stop and search you and your vehicle without reason within at the border. YOU CANNOT REFUSE
At the Border Crossing
At the U.S./Mexico border, CBP has extremely broad powers to search vehicles. At primary inspection, the officer will assess not only your legal status to enter the U.S., but also whether you are bringing any type of contraband into the U.S. Your vehicle may be subjected to radiation detection, a dog may sniff your car, and an officer may also look around your vehicle or knock on your vehicle to check for hidden contraband or compartments.
The officer at primary inspection may send a vehicle to secondary inspection for a more thorough search. Legally, the officer does not need to prove that he/she had any type of suspicion of unlawful conduct when referring the car to secondary. In secondary, the officers can perform an intrusive search of your vehicle, including dismantling the gas tank, doors etc. and have no legal obligation to establish that there was any reasonable suspicion that the car contained contraband and regardless of the level of inconvenience or delay it may cause to you.
One of the few limitations against suspicionless searches is against those that would cause some type of permanent damage to the vehicle, like drilling holes. Here, an officer could be required to show that their actions were reasonable, but still, the bar is quite low.
At the checkpoints is a little tougher
These are the checkpoints you may see on roads leading away from the border. Many people pass through the immigration checkpoints that have not recently crossed the border. At times the officer may merely glance at the car and wave the driver through and sometimes checkpoints are closed altogether. Although the primary purpose of these checkpoints is supposed to be for the enforcement of immigration laws, CBP is permitted to investigate other suspected criminal activity at these checkpoints, with some limitations.
When an officer stops a vehicle at a checkpoint, they are supposed to use the time during this first encounter to determine that the occupants of the car are not violating immigration laws. The officer need not suspect that the driver is violating any law in order to stop the vehicle. The officer is then tasked with assessing if the driver and occupants are violating any immigration laws. Within that short time required to assess immigration status, the officer can also assess whether the occupants of the vehicle are violating drug laws (or potentially other criminal activity). In other words, while one officer is asking you immigration questions, another officer could run a drug detection dog around your vehicle.
Similar to CBP authority at the border, the CBP officer at a checkpoint can send a vehicle to secondary inspection without reasonable suspicion, but only for additional screening related to the violation of immigration laws. In order to send a vehicle to secondary inspection at a checkpoint for drug interdiction purposes, the officer must have gathered enough evidence in the short time of the immigration stop to develop reasonable suspicion that the vehicle’s occupants were violating drug laws. Granted, this is still a relatively low bar, but it recognizes more of a privacy expectation at a checkpoint than at a border crossing. Additionally, officers must establish the higher standard of probable cause in order to search a vehicle at a checkpoint, which is vastly different from the standard at the border.
Notice the bold above without reasonable suspicion they can pull you for secondary inspection for violating immagration law. They may search for hidden illegal aliens without your consent and WHATEVER THEY FIND EVEN IF NOT RELATED TO ALIEN ACTIVITY CAN AND WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU
