Carrying Cash is NOT a Crime

Beyond the Brief

It’s legal to travel domestically with any amount of cash. It’s legal to travel in and out of the U.S. with more than $10k if you declare it. But that doesn’t stop law enforcement from searching travelers’ property and seizing any cash they find without warrants or evidence of a crime. Today we talk with IJ attorneys Jaba Tsitsuashvili and Ben Field about how the government treats carrying cash like a crime and what IJ’s doing to fight back.

https://youtu.be/WmVFud7v2r4

Know Your Rights Card

Civil forfeiture is the process the government uses to take and sell your property—including cash, cars, and even homes—even if you have not been convicted of—or even charged with—any crime.

Every year hundreds of thousands of Americans lose their property through civil forfeiture—don’t be one of them!

download the card

Your Property or Theirs?

Once your property has been seized by the government there is a byzantine process to get it back. See the steps and pitfalls for navigating a federal forfeiture case in this comprehensive overview.

view the process

Learn more about our Civil Forfeiture work.

The Institute for Justice aims to curtail, and ultimately, abolish civil forfeiture, one of the gravest abuses of power in the country today. Unlike criminal forfeiture, which takes property from convicted criminals, under civil forfeiture, property owners do not have to be convicted of a crime, or even charged with one, to permanently lose their cash, cars, businesses or even their homes.

learn more