Passport inquiries up with big changes ahead

The phone at the county’s District Clerk’s Office rang loud and often Monday with callers asking about securing passports, deadlines and new rules for international travel

“I got numerous calls today,” District Clerk Aurora De La Garza said and expects plenty more as the end of the year approaches.

A new law took effect Monday, requiring all U.S. citizens to carry a passport if returning from Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and Bermuda by plane. The new mandate was to take effect in June, but a backlog in passport applications delayed it until Oct. 1.

Motorists and pedestrians are not required to carry a passport until Jan.1 but are required to show proper identification at land crossings.

Beginning Jan. 1, all U.S. citizens must provide proof of citizenship and a government issued photo ID to re-enter the United States by any means of travel, including crossing Rio Grande Valley bridges.

De La Garza’s office is one of several places in Southern Cameron County where passport applications are being accepted, including the U.S. Post Offices in Brownsville and South Padre Island.

The office inside the County Courthouse on East Harrison Street collected a record $105,000 in passport fees in July alone.

“We did 116 applications in one day at PUB,” De La Garza said of a “passport fair” event at the local utility offices.

De La Garza’s office has held these mini-fairs at area schools, offices and businesses, with information about the new passport requirements.

Federal officials announced in early September that passport processing offices had “caught up” with the historic spike in demand for applications. It typically takes six to eight weeks to process a routine U.S. passport application.

More than 16 million passports have been issued since October 2006, a nearly 25 percent increase from 2005.