---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 2000aa–5"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "2000aa–5"
heading: "Border and customs searches"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/2000aa-5"
units:
  - "Chapter 21A — Privacy Protection"
  - "Subchapter I — First Amendment Privacy Protection"
  - "Part B — Remedies, Exceptions, and Definitions"
---

# §2000aa–5. Border and customs searches


This chapter shall not impair or affect the ability of a government officer or employee, pursuant to otherwise applicable law, to conduct searches and seizures at the borders of, or at international points of, entry into the United States in order to enforce the customs laws of the United States.


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 96–440, title I, § 105, Oct. 13, 1980, 94 Stat. 1880.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section effective Jan. 1, 1981, except that insofar as such provisions are applicable to a State or any governmental unit other than the United States, the section is effective one year from Oct. 13, 1980, see section 108 of Pub. L. 96–440, set out as a note under section 2000aa of this title.