U.S. Customs and Border Protection wanted to garner some social media clout this weekend, so they logged on and did what federal agencies do when they've grown drunk on power: they bragged about behavior that would land anyone else in prison. The tweet was simple, smug, and astonishing in its honesty. "It's not a crime to carry over $10K," the agency wrote. "We just want to know about it." The hubris required to type that sentence with a straight face is almost impressive. They admit you haven't broken the law, then congratulate themselves for taking your money anyway.

This time, the victim was a man traveling through Brownsville, Texas. CBP stopped his southbound vehicle, called in a canine unit, rummaged through the car until the dog alerted, and then uncovered $70,749 in U.S. currency. The agency made sure to photograph the neat stacks of cash, lay them out like a trophy display, and post them online as if they'd just cracked a major cartel. Their own press release says it plainly: the man wasn't carrying drugs, weapons, or contraband. He wasn't smuggling humans. He wasn't committing fraud. He wasn't even breaking the law they're citing. He simply didn't fill out a form before driving by them. 

"We just want to know about it," they remind us, as if the federal government's curiosity is a constitutional standard. And then, in the same breath: "CBP officers seized the currency."

If anyone else takes money that doesn't belong to them, we call it theft. When the government takes money that doesn't belong to them, they call it "a seizure" and hold a press conference.

The press release is a masterclass in doublespeak. "CBP officers' duties not only involve inspecting inbound traffic but also stopping unreported bulk currency which are often proceeds from illicit activity," said Port Director Tater Ortiz. "Their efforts led to this seizure." Except CBP doesn't know whether the money was from illicit activity — and legally, that question is supposed to matter. Under the Fourth Amendment, the government cannot search you or seize your property without probable cause. Under the Fifth Amendment, the government cannot take your property without due process. Yet here we are, watching federal agents grab $70,000 from a man who wasn't charged with anything, and then insist the burden is on him to prove he deserves his own money back.

This is the core perversity of civil asset forfeiture. We at The Free Thought Project have covered these stories for more than a decade — from the cops in Oklahoma caught using forfeiture to seize tens of thousands from a church volunteer on her way to provide help to an orphanage to the Nevada trooper who pulled over a Marine veteran and took his life savings on the side of the road. Every time we dig into these cases, the same theme emerges: the government no longer sees forfeiture as an extraordinary tool reserved for serious crime. It sees it as revenue.