Crossing the Border

People need to take advantage of dental tourism to Mexico, but are apprehensive because they don't have their passport in hand. The truth is, if you have your drivers license and birth certificate, you can still cross the Mexican border back into the US with out a problem. Although a US passport is required at US Border crossing, the requirement is not being enforced. Please read the letter below:

An open letter from one of our patients to his Congressmen about border crossing issues.
 
I am an American citizen living in Los Angeles. I recently needed medical services that were available only in Tijuana, Mexico.  However, my U.S. passport had expired.

I examined easily obtainable State Department documentation pertaining to persons using U.S. border crossing points. These texts specify several forms of individual identification that are unequivocally stated to be the ones currently accepted by U.S. border crossing authorities. 

Nevertheless, hearsay in this area suggests that the extreme number of passport applications being processed has motivated the State Department to, for the time being, relax its border crossing identification requirements and accept a valid U.S. drivers license accompanied by a valid birth certificate.

In addition, I’d spoken directly with U.S. Postal Service employees who process passport applications. They said that evidence of a citizen’s having applied for passport renewal -- a postal receipt -- was also being accepted by our border crossing officials.

On Monday, September 21, 2009, I accepted hearsay over my government’s “official information,” and spent the day in Tijuana being treated. Then, presenting U. S. Border officers with only my driver’s license and birth certificate, I uneventfully returned to U.S. soil.

Extensive follow-up since confirms that my experience is not an anomaly or happen-stance exception.  It represents current practice.

The U.S. Government’s stating that it requires U.S. citizens entering the country at a U.S. border crossing point to present a passport is clearly disinformation.  It is a deliberate omission of facts that substantially change the meaning of what our State Department officially presents as the law. 

It’s commonly known as lying by omission.  It is blatantly dishonest.

The practice should immediately be halted -- as should the pointless and frivolous denial of a legitimate opportunity for U.S. citizens to, for whatever reason, visit a foreign country and return to U.S soil.

I believe our published border crossing regulations ought to be reflected in our border crossing practices!

I’m not expecting a personal response to this email.  However, I do ask for 1) an acknowledgment of your office’s awareness of the border crossing issues I raise and 2) a brief summary of what steps, if any, are being taken
to address them.