Secret TSA Policy Lets Agents Seize Your Cash—Having Same or Different Bills Both ‘Suspicious’ Enough [Roundup]

“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.

..TSA agents were sometimes permitted to keep a percentage of travelers’ cash they helped seize, but that brazen abuse reportedly no longer occurs.

…TSA agents in Indiana are encouraged to “trust your instinct” when it comes to commandeering passengers’ money. North Dakota TSA agents are told, “Any large amount of currency will be reported, even if you believe it to be in the low thousands.”

Airport cash seizures are turbocharged because TSA considers almost everything to be “evidence of criminal activity.”

…TSA agents can seize money if it is “Rubber Banded,” bundled in “Store Bought Bands” or bundled with “Hand Made Bands.” If there is a “Hand Made Label” on the cash, then it is guilty as hell or at least “close enough for government work” guilty.

TSA agents can seize money if it is suspiciously all the same denomination of currency — or if it is suspiciously of different denominations. Carrying any money in your socks is treated like a full confession.

TSA condemns travelers for concealing money even though more than 500 TSA agents have been fired for robbing passengers.