it feels like a situation where they'd use my refusal to haul me away while they "investigate" the matter.

I would only cross borders right now with a new burner phone.

at border crossings.

But they main detain you for a bit or take your phone. If you are not a US citizen, things get murkier.

If you are worried, I would sign-out of anything sensitive, then delete the app. Transfer any sensitive data/files to another device at home, then hard delete those items.

If you're really worried, leave your main devices at home and buy a "travel" phone that is clean.
That's what they advise you to do when visiting China.

will be after the orange stain on our country is gone. So there will be no "home" to leave my devices at. I either take them or ditch them entirely. But I want to make sure my money stretches so I don't want to get a new phone if I don't have to do so.

You're not going through border control when leaving the US. So no one in the US will have any reason to check your phone since they don't care that you're leaving.

I'm probably just being paranoid but how can one NOT be paranoid these days?

I travel to Europe fairly frequently. The only check on the way out of the US is the airline making sure you have a valid passport (make sure it is signed. That's one of the things they're looking for lately). Mostly, this is because if you get denied entry into your destination, the airline has to pay for your return.

European countries, on the other hand, have passport control going in and out.

nor looked at my phone.

I'll read and save this info.

They call it “the trusted traveler program”. It includes TSAPreCheck so you get reduced screening at US airports. More importantly it usually results in reduced screening on return to the US. Its a simple process and you don’t give up more information than your credit card company or Costco already has.

If you’re a US citizen who is overtly politically active, get a travel phone because, while you can’t be forced to reveal your passwords, they can take your phone, copy everything, then do what they want. Expect increasingly intrusive behavior from ‘the authorities.’

I'm fully expecting increasingly intrusive behavior for sure. But my plan is to leave the country for a period of time, yet to be determined. So I can't have a travel phone and a home phone. I'd like to be able to take my own phone with me, but maybe it's not worth the risk. I can always delete all social media off my phone but my texts and emails would reveal the contributions I've made, groups I've joined, petitions I've signed, etc. Ugh.

Is it safe to travel with your phone right now?

Recent high-profile deportations began with phone searches at airports. What are your rights? The answer: it depends.

https://www.theverge.com/policy/634264/customs-border-protection-search-phone-airport-rights

Discussion on Hacker News (long, but nowhere as long as slashdot and others)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43452474

Interesting stuff. I guess I'll just wipe my phone before I leave. Even if the chances are slim because I'm a citizen and I'm leaving the country, I don't want to take any chances.