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Putting aside the question of grabbing your laptop, it doesn't seem to me that what DHS is doing is anything different than any law enforcement officer can do anywhere in the US. For example, you can be stopped by a cop any time, and questioned. You don't have to answer. When you don't answer, the cop has to have a reason to detain you. Thing is, of course, we have so damn many laws that this is not a problem for a cop. But the cop can't just search you without reason, as a legal matter, though he'll pretend he can unless you make it clear that you know he lacks that authority.
On the border, the Customs cops know you are entering the country & can search you or your laptop, or detain you, for any reason. But you don't have to answer any questions they ask unless you want to. Eventually they will have either let you go or escalate. Thing is, they don't have to rush, and they get to hold you longer than might be convenient. If you are a legal resident, they eventually have to let you go in, but if you haven't let them search your laptop, they can keep it till the search is done. No different than if you lock your luggage - you don't have to tell the combination but they can keep your suitcase if you don't.
If there is a problem here, it is with what might be the assertion by DHS that they can behave as if you are entering the country anywhere they want. But I don't believe that's quite what they are saying. They can set up checkpoints, but I doubt that they can take your laptop without some kind of probable cause unless they know you have just entered the country.
The bottom line is that the power of a cop/border agent to stop you inside the country and then take further action is not a black & white question with a simple answer. It is a complicated question, and the answer in each situation is based on specific facts, and lies along a continuum which the cops will try to push in one direction while the ACLU will try to push in another.
But having worked as a lawyer for many years with a federal agency which has some police powers, I am quite happy to have the ACLU out there making trouble for such agencies, not because they are evil agencies, but because without pushback, they will inexorably take positions that they have authority that they really lack. It's what bureaucrats do.
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