The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a customs summons to Google demanding the location history, activity logs, and account information of a Canadian citizen who has not entered the United States since 2012. The summons, authorized under the Tariff Act of 1930, was sent after the man posted criticism of immigration enforcement on X following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis in January 2026.
How the summons works
A customs summons is an administrative subpoena that does not require judicial review or a grand jury. It is legally intended for investigating imports, customs duties, and trade compliance. The summons in this case requested records covering September 1, 2025, to February 4, 2026, and specifically asked for data related to "History of Account Suspensions or Violations of Terms due to Threatening or Harassing Language." The man's lawyers state he did not import or export any goods during that period.
Google alerted the man about the request on February 9, despite the summons including a non-disclosure directive. The man initially thought the notification was a joke or scam.
Legal challenge and precedent
The man, represented by the ACLU of the District of Columbia, has filed a lawsuit against DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. The suit argues that DHS exceeded its authority under customs law and is exploiting the fact that Google is a US-based company to obtain data on a foreign national who has no physical presence in the country.
"It's using that geographic fact to get information that otherwise would be totally outside of its jurisdiction," said Michael Perloff, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of DC. "We're talking about the physical movements of a person who lives in Canada."
This is not an isolated incident. In March 2026, DHS withdrew a customs summons targeting an anonymous Reddit user after a lawsuit was filed, then issued a grand jury subpoena instead. In 2017, Twitter sued DHS over a similar summons targeting an account critical of immigration policy; DHS withdrew the request and Twitter dropped the suit, leaving the legality unresolved. A subsequent DHS Office of the Inspector General investigation found that the issuing unit, CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility, violated its own policies in about one in five summonses reviewed.
Broader context
DHS has increased its use of administrative subpoenas to identify users who criticize the agency or track agent activities. In February 2026, The New York Times reported that Google, Reddit, Discord, and Meta had received hundreds of such subpoenas in the prior six months. In March, a group of US congressmembers asked tech companies for data on request