FYI, traveling in El Paso Texas ...

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stillwaitinganw

Registered Users (C)
I had no idea one needs immigration documents to travel inside the country. They have immigration posts in every direction going out of El Paso. If you travel in that area, too close to border please take your passport and everything else you have. It was almost like border crossing. I had nothing with me and they ran a complete investigation on me and found my file number and everything else... I think by law we (immigrants) are required to carry our passports at all time. Not practical but I was told that one could get deported just for that.

I thought I share the experience. If you are in that area do yourself a huge favor and go see Carlsbad Caverns. It was so amazing that I thought it was worth what I had to go through earlier that day.
 
In fact, the law requires all non-citizens to carry an evidence of lawful presence in the country at all times. That affects Green Card holders, by the way.

There is a huge list of allowed documents, but for the purposes of this thread, carrying your I-94 or EAD is supposed to be sufficient.

And yes, not having this document upon your person, if asked, is considered to be a misdemeanor, for which an alien can be deported.

Fortunately, this law goes overlooked most of the time, saving inconvenience of dragging along a passport, advance parole and other oversized items, which one may not be able to stash into a wallet.

However, travelling near the border or on a local airline (international airlines already do that), one should be prepared to all sorts of examination of immigration documents.
 
I remember that they stopped us at the checkpost (checkpost before you leave El Paso and going towards Dallas) and asked us for the documents 3 years back. But, we were excused as we mentioned that we are students and just travelling on vacation on fun trip.
 
No worries. They are already cursed enough.

I wonder, what percent of adjudicating INS officers goes postal?
 
Been to Carlsbad caverns, truly amazing! Offcourse since I went there from Alberquque din't have the immigration problem. :)

I wonder if they stop you if you are white, and how in the world do they check if you tell them you are an American citizen?
 
I wouldn't think about claiming to be a U.S. citizen falsely. I know of a couple of cases (from media and mailing lists) where the INS/BCIS claims the persons claimed to be U.S. citizens, and they got into big trouble, one was jailed, the other one kicked back to Mexico. One of the guys was a Canadian, I assume white, raised since young age in the U.S., but with some immigration issue allegedly due to a INS mistake.

I believe it is much better to tell the truth, even if this gets you into an additional inspection process. By the way, I travelled from Laredo towards El Paso and then to Carlsbad caverns. Carlsbad caverns are very beautiful sight. I went through 4 or 5 border patrol controls. Very early I found the best thing was to roll down the window and give them the GCs, this avoids any confusion about they thinking you want to claim U.S. citizenship. Some of the officers were actually nice, others just businesslike. No problems with any of them.

My 2 cents.
 
Huracan has reminded me of a friend of mine who was returning from Tijuana and falsely stated that he is a US Citizen. His line of reasoning was: "Everybody in front of me were saying that they are citizens and passing through immigration control without any checks, so I decided to do the same to avoid any hassles." He was on H1-B at the time, multiple entry and all.

Well, may be that was a dumb luck, but he was asked to produce appropriate document as a proof, which he, of course failed to do. Attempts to back up and sell the immigration guy a story that the citizenship claim was subconscious and he wished he was a citizen were not successful.

So, my friend was actually detained for a half an hour or so until they cleared his visa. He was released after that with a warning that impersonation of a US citizen is not a good thing and next time he better tell the truth.

... It has been a long time since then, and the friend is a legal permanent resident now. But I doubt that he realizes how close he was then to a litany of not-so-good things consequent to his little "misrepresentation".
 
The Immigration and Naturalization Act

Sec. 264. [8 U.S.C. 1304]

(e) Every alien, eighteen years of age and over, shall at all times carry with him and have in his personal possession any certificate of alien registration or alien registration receipt card issued to him pursuant to subsection (d). Any alien who fails to comply with the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall upon conviction for each offense be fined not to exceed $100 or be imprisoned not more than thirty days, or both.
 
Haven't read the quoted article of the law for a while. I was pretty sure that there is a penalty for the offence, but assuming it was a deportation was a mistake :)

Anyway. Being convicted of a misdemeanor may create grounds for inadmissibility, if not immediate deportability. Inadmissibility means that adjustment of status application, if any pending, will be ultimately denied. Which, of course, leaves the alien the only legal choice to leave the country in order to avoid further status violations.
 
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