Per Luis Mejia, the CBP Director of the Enforcement Programs Division, Office of Field Operations, who spoke at AILA on June 19, 2025, in 2025 there were 11 million people sent to secondary at the various border pre-clearance stations. (e.g. airports) Of those, 55,000 travelers had their electronic devices searched.    That is .5%.  But still, I doubt even 5,000 of the 55,000 had any of evidence of a crime on someone’s phone or laptop.  CBP for 2024 reported 17,000 people were arrested for a prior criminal conviction (not a current crime).  I suspect very few of the inspections were of US Citizens. By the way, Director Mejia is straight forward and a cool guy.

The issue is Business and Professions Code section 10131 and Section 10137. Essentially, a licensed broker cannot pay a fee to a non-licensee to do something for which a real estate license is required. The court’s have addressed this (Shaffer v. Beinhorn (1923) 190 Cal. 569, 573-574, Tyrone v. Kelley (1973) 9 Cal.3d 1) and the California Attorney General in 1995 issued a favorable opinion on this issue. The scenario was: “The role of the finder … to enable the broker to identify and contact persons who may be interested in obtaining a loan through a secured transaction.” The simple answer, is merely providing a lead to a broker, but not doing any negotiating, or something that a license is required, allows the broker to pay a non-licensee a finder’s fee. (See 78 Ops. Cal. Gen. 71, https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/opinions/pdfs/94-909.pdf)

By the way, it is so easy to get a real estate license, unless the finder is barred from getting a license, make your life simple, take the exam!

Don’t forget, RESPA applies if its a buyer occupied residential property with 4 or fewer unitsstill may prohibit real estate licensees from paying – or providing – anything of value to a non-licensee for the referral for business if the referral was done with the expectation of gaining compensation and the transaction is “federally related.”