DHS does not deny strong-arming tourist into letting them into his phone, only that agents sent him home because of a meme
The story circulating online — first in Norwegian newspaper Nordlys and then picked up by British tabloids — claims that during Mikkelsen’s encounter with the Department of Homeland Security, agents took his phone and found a meme depicting Vance as a bloated, smooth, bald man staring off into the distance.
Mikkelsen claims that the officials threatened to fine him $5,000 or send him to prison for five years if he refused to provide them with his phone password. The tourist ultimately agreed to hand over his information, allowing agents to look through his phone.
The reports picked up enough steam in headlines and on social media to justify CBP putting out a statement denying parts of the story.
To disable biometrics on your iPhone, simply press the power button five times, rapidly.
This also gives you a power off option and an SOS button.
If you want to fully encrypt the phone before confiscation, turn it off.
Or press and hold the power button and the volume up button, if which clicking isn’t possible as it might not be easy for some.
This can be paired with the “Erase all Data” option in “FaceID and Passcode” settings to add another level of security.
Just remember to play dumb when you “accidentally” incorrectly enter your passcode 10 times in a row and to make sure you have a recent backup that you are able to access.
I agree with activating those options but due to timers preventing you to make another try starting after the 5th incorrect entry it will take at least 1h 21m to enter your PIN incorrectly 10 times. The last timer alone is 60min. So this unfortunately is not a quick way to wipe your iPhone in this scenario.
I suspect they will not wait 60min to let you enter the a wrong PIN for the 10th time if you even get that far. Much more likely they will confiscate the device to clone it in order to have unlimited tries for brute forcing if they really want to access your phone.