Border Crossing Mexico Immigration can't ask for ID

I don't know if this changed or not. Last August I was working in Laredo, TX. Twice, we (our group) walked across the bridge into Nuevo Laredo for dinner. The people I was working with told us that the US Customs and Immigration personnel are not allowed to ask to see ID. They are (or were at the time) only allowed to ask the person what his citizenship is. I didn't stand around and watch, but they only asked me (and others in our group) what country we are citizens of.

Maybe the procedure has changed since then, I dunno.

Regards,
Adonsa

Hmmm, Ive never been there...but Ive seen many movies.

Like in this Cheech and Chong movie they tried to cross over and
the border people ask for there ID.

Maybe that particular section and it's workers just did'nt give a crap and knew you were Americans.

Who knows!!! But we still card Canadians

normally, they KNOW if you're American or not, believe me, it's not hard to tell. they will card anyone traveling alone, with a group of too similar individuals, etc. don't usually card families, especially those with younger children. i used to go to Acuna across the border from Del Rio, TX when my grandfather owned a ranch there. haven't been in close to 10 years now, but i imagine it's mostly the same, except now, i here that you have to hide anything of value, it's like the 80's again, when Mexico was a scary place to be. the police, the locals, MS-13, they will kill you and take your 50 dollar watch.

i have been to mexico once about 12 years ago. i don't remember if we had to show id or not. i do know however that when crossing back and forth between the us and canada there has always been the chance at getting asked for id, even more so since 9-11.

i have been back and forth quite often as half my family lives on each side. i have had some problems crossing but that was mostly with the canaidian side (note i am a canuk). once i even had one moron who at seeing the mess my trunk was threatened to not let me come home. he was just a compleat imbacille.

it all started out with rushing to change my rear springs. due to part problems we were rather delayed, so once my friends and i finished up we just threw everything back in the trunk as i was in a hurry to go to my gradparrents (i was only 6 hours late leaveing). on the way home i stopped at duty free, then proceded to cross. being young and driveing a clasic car (hey it was cheep and in decent shape).i got pulled for inspection, this is where the fun began. i showed the inspecter my duty free receipt. then he asked to look in the trunk. first thing he did was pull out the bag clearly marked duty free out of the trunk. he asked" what is this". i was stunned i said something like " thats the smokes and rum from duty free". he said "whats it doing in the trunk?" i was like "uh it's alcohal, can't have booze anywhere but the trunk". then he looked in the trunk and said "i don't have to deal with this" indicateing the mess. i tried to explain why it was that way. and he told me " i don't have to deal with this, i don't have to let you back into your county you know". well we argued for awile and finaly let me go. "his parting words were along the lines of "next time i won't let you in" and forced me to move the alcohal into the front seat. (after i got through custums i put the rum back in the trunk as i was fully expecting to be pulled over by the cops, yet another set up).

it seems that where custums is concerned that they can do whatever they please. if they want they can pull apart your car and even if they don't find anything they don't have to put it together again. my parents just flew into michigan a few weeks ago from the philipeans. one suitcase was missing, they were told it should be there the next day. when they went back and picked it up, they found that the lock had been cut off and in the process the zipper was wrecked. it had also been sliced open in several places, thus ruinining it. they were told that it had been searched randomly, and that they were not responsible for any damage. (there was no contraband in it, in fact it mostly contained their winter jackets).

if they are this concerned in the north than i don't see why they wouldn't even check id at the mexico border. personaly if they damage something they should be responsible for repair or replacement. provided of course that they do not find stuff being smuggled. whatever happened to searching an item in your presance anyway? they could plant whatever they wanted to and you could not say that you saw them plant it. it seems to me that custims in both the us and canada should be abolished and rebuilt from scratch with propper rules of conduct to protect innocent people from the harrasement and damage that custums now can inflict at a whim. this is not a recent problem but one that has been there at least 30 years.