Confiscation or destruction of personal property is a risk if you are detained. It is common for people who are detained to have their belongings lost, destroyed, or stolen.
Even in the event that belongings are managed in accordance with proper protocols, the relevant government agencies (including U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Prisons) all have different regulations regarding what belongings can follow a detainee along the chain of custody and how long personal possessions will be held for safekeeping.[1] Also, immigrants are often transferred between agencies, which increases the potential for lost or destroyed items.[2]
If you are carrying cash at the time that you are apprehended, that cash will be taken. Often, the cash is eventually returned in a form that may be unusable to you – either in the form of checks or money orders that cannot be cashed in your home country, or in the form of prepaid debit cards that may be difficult, confusing, expensive, or impossible to activate.
[1] See U.S. Customs and Border Protection Directive: Short-Term Holding Facilities Handling, Storage, Transference, and/or Return of Detainee Personal Property (2024), available at: cbp.gov/sites/default/files/2024-08/cbp_directive_no._5240-010.pdf; See Inmate Personal Property, 28 CFR Part 553 Subpart B, available at: ecfr.gov/current/title-28/part-553/subpart-B; See U.S. CBP National Standards on Transport, Escort, Detention, and Search, available at: cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2020-Feb/cbp-teds-policy-october2015.pdf; Additionally, see: americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/deported-no-possessions
[2] Available at: vice.com/en_us/article/what-happens-to-your-stuff-when-you-get-deported