Several weeks ago, a lawsuit was filed against U.S. Customs and Border Protection after a 64-year-old American man had roughly $58,000 confiscated from him when he was trying to travel back to Albania.

Rustem Kazazi says that he was strip searched and had all of his money taken, despite authorities never charging him with any crime.

This has happened to many individuals, where authorities have seized their cash, cars, and a myriad of other assets, under powers stemming from civil asset forfeiture legislation. It's being used against hard-working Americans and it's posing a great threat to what are supposed to be Constitutionally-protected natural rights.

In some cases, victims of this policy have been able to fight back to try and get their property from the state. But that is an expensive endeavor and luckily there are organizations like the Institute for Justice which help these victims for free. The IJ has launched several lawsuits over similar instances of civil asset forfeiture abuse and in some cases they've seen success and had the money or property returned. But not everyone who falls victim to this policy is going to be as lucky and not everyone is equipped to take on the fight to try and stand up for what is right.

In 2017 alone, it's estimated that the government has been able to confiscate more than $2 billion in assets thanks to civil asset forfeiture.

That is a lot of money coming from victims who in many cases have never been charged or convicted of any wrongdoing in relation to their property being taken away from them. Critics have said that it's quite disturbing to see how little respect is shown toward the civil rights of Americans from federal agents, when they utilize civil asset forfeiture powers to take away their property from them.

After his story gained media attention and he launched his lawsuit with the IJ, U.S. border agents have now agreed to return almost all of the cash that was taken from Kazazi. However, there is some confusion over how much they took from him.

The government has allegedly sought to write him a check for $57,330 plus interest, but he says that they're short several hundred dollars. As a result, it's reported that a bench trial has been scheduled for later this year. Lawyers for Kazazi have said that he won't be interested in settling for a portion of the money, they're looking to get back every penny that was taken from them.

Stop The Abuse

Rather than authorities wasting their time, wasting our time, and wasting the courts time, hopefully a growing number will start to reconsider their approach when it comes to exercising their civil asset forfeiture powers.

In many circumstances when victims of this policy fight back, they end-up getting their property back so what does that tell you? It tells me that they were in the wrong on numerous occasions. Authorities need to stop unjustly stealing property from Americans because they aren't promoting any well-being for the community by doing so.

Sources:
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/lawsuit-border-patrol-seized-immigrants-life-savings-without-cause/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/05/31/a-64-year-old-put-his-life-savings-in-his-carry-on-u-s-customs-took-it-without-charging-him-with-a-crime/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.47127a5c28dc
https://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2018/06/federal_government_giving_back.html

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