Welcome to FreedomWorks Foundation’s seventeenth regulatory review of 2019! Our Regulatory Action Center proudly updates you with our favorite tidbits from the swamp. We want to smash barriers between bureaucracy and the American people by delivering regulatory news straight to FreedomWorks activists. Check back in two weeks for the next edition.

Recent information and a USA Today report indicates that the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) has been mining Americans’ travel records to profile individuals and intercept potential drug traffickers. Over the past decade, DEA teams acquired over $209 million in cash from at least 5200 travelers at 15 of the country’s busiest airports. The justification for these seizures is the same used for most other civil asset forfeiture scenarios: use of money in the form of cash is linked to drug trafficking.

Vu Do, the owner of two nail salons in New York City, was traveling through John F. Kennedy International Airport in February on his way to California with nearly $44,000 in cash he had saved over a period of 20 years. He intended to loan the money to his two brothers who fell on tough times. Similar to the story of Charles Clarke, as Do was about to board his flight, a DEA agent, according to TechDirt, seized the cash under the suspicion that it was connected to illicit drug activity.

Charles Clarke, after a long trip to visit relatives in Cincinnati between late 2013 and early 2014, was preparing to board a flight back to his home in Orlando when he was approached by local law enforcement working with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). They claimed a ticket agent said his checked bag smelled like marijuana and began asking him about his travel plans because he had purchased a one-way ticket. They also asked whether he was carrying any cash.

Joseph Rivers is a 22-year-old who has a dream of making a music video. With help from his supportive family, he persevered and saved, raising $16,000 in cash to leave his hometown in Michigan for Los Angeles to see his dream become reality.