The following excerpt is from U.S. v. Duncan, 693 F.2d 971 (9th Cir. 1982):
In this era of air travel, it is unreasonable to expect that persons can be searched at the exact moment they cross an international border. One will board a plane at a place within the interior borders of one country and not touch ground again until within the interior borders of a second country. Because of this, courts have recognized the validity of border searches at what are referred to as the "functional equivalent" of a border. See Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U.S. 266, 273, 93 S.Ct. 2535, 2539, 37 L.Ed.2d 596 (1973) ("a search of the passengers and cargo of an airplane arriving at a St. Louis airport after a nonstop flight from Mexico City would clearly be the functional equivalent of a border search"). See also United States v. Moore, 638 F.2d 1171, 1173 (9th Cir.1980).
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