Passport will soon be required to leave Big Bend area ????

[MarkB]

You may get in without one but.....will you get out in the future???
http://www.wben.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=09266

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I think the last thing people want to carry when hiking in the Bend is their passport which I have heard can be much harder to replace (if lost) than a driver's license.  Sounds like the need for (or a  reaction to) requirements like this....  may be  a national id card.....

[dave2]

Passports are very hard to replace when lost or stolen. However, my understanding is that you will not need a passport if you have not crossed an international border.  Might need one if you float the river and stop on the Mexican side.

[RichardM]

Nice inflammatory subject line you got there, Mark.  This is old news.  Only thing new is that they're officially giving a grace period.  Nowhere in the article do they say anything about Big Bend or the "Big Bend area".  It's only if you're coming in from Mexico (you know, that foreign country to the south of us) or Canada (that foreign country up North, eh?) that you are required to provide proof of citizenship.

A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency which will carry out the new policy, said he wasn't expecting any problems Thursday. No one will be denied entry into the United States if they don't have the required paperwork, he said.

"The officers are well aware of the documentary requirements," said Customs and Border Protection spokesman Ted Woo. "This is only an educational period. Wait times are going to be very closely monitored."

Travelers who don't have the required identification will be given a flier explaining the new rules. It's unclear how long the grace period will last.

[aggiehiker]

I was in Del Rio the first of January and made several trips across to Acuna. Coming back across the dam they asked for photo ID. Coming back across the bridge, they didn't on two trips and did on one. I think it's a matter of who's on duty.

[MarkB]

Yes Richard I am very familiar with the new laws and have been for a long time. The topic was posed as a question for thought, not an inflamatory comment as you suggested. This is supposed to be a board for "discussion of issues" which should include issues that do, can, or may effect the area concerned now or in the future.

I have been entering and exiting the park for more than 20 years, and with only one exception I have had to pass thru customs "checkpoints" either approaching Marathon or Alpine after leaving the park which ARE considered extensions of border crossings. See this for more info:

Traffic checkpoints”temporary and permanent”serve as the strategic enforcement layer of CBP Border Patrol tiered approach to border security. Border Patrol agents monitor and stop vehicles at checkpoints, usually located 25 to 75 miles inland from the border. Checkpoints, or chokepoints™ as they are sometimes called, are usually on main arteries from the border into the interior of the country, says Border Patrol Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Lynne Underdown. (See the article First female sector chief retires in this issue.)
At checkpoints, agents can check the immigration status of the occupant of every car and if they spot something in plain view or if a canine alerts they can send the vehicle to secondary for a more complete inspection. Checkpoint work hones the skills of agents. An agent in Falfurrias can learn to assess a vehicle and its driver in seven seconds or under, says Chief Underdown. Traffic has to continue to flow so there isnt time to ponder”agents must be decisive and quick. ......

On more than one occassion in the past when I lived in the area, I was  asked where I was born, especially in the summertime with regular visits to the Bend when I had spent too much time in the desert.

I think it is very possible that these new requirements at the actual crossings may be extended to interior checkpoints within a couple of years based upon a continued need for security whether anyone agrees with the concept or not.  It doesnt hurt to sometimes  "think outside of the  box" to spot trends that may be coming or changes/adaptations to existing procedures that may be necessary. 
--Mark
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[SHANEA]

I still keep wondering how they are going to enforce this on Lake Amistad that straddles the Texas / Mexico border.  Is there someone going to be from DHS/CBP at mid lake to check your passport and stamp it?  Maybe put up a huge string of orange cone/buoys and funnel all boat traffic into a single point of entry/exit?   Are they going to build a giant wall down the middle of the lake to prevent people from illegally crossing bank and forth?  Maybe drain the lake and put up a wall?  I don't get it?  The DHS/CBP and the idiots in Washington are so concerned about illegal crossing between Boquillas and Santa Elena and every where else up and down the border that they are building a fence, preventing crossings, etc. - but I can hop in a boat and do it all day every day.  Heck, I can just take my boat and cross back and forth to Mexico as many times as I want to w/o having to have a passport or any other kind of documentation. 

The same goes for Falcon lake and every other lake that straddles the border.

[presidio]

Are they going to build a giant wall down the middle of the lake to prevent people from illegally crossing bank and forth?

Now you've gone and done it. Everybody in DHS has been scratching their heads trying to figure this one out and you just go and give them the solution. Terrific 

but I can hop in a boat and do it all day every day.  Heck, I can just take my boat and cross back and forth to Mexico as many times as I want to w/o having to have a passport or any other kind of documentation.

Well now that you've told them your plans, expect to be boarded. That would be suspicious activity to suspicious minds (best get a velvet painting of Elvis while in Mexico to ward that off).

The same goes for Falcon lake and every other lake that straddles the border.

ЎAy yi yi yi yi ! You just took care of the rest of them, too!

'We have met the enemy, and he is us'. -- Pogo (this seems to be the general principle DHS is operating under as the screws get tightened on us).