S&S - Base commanders issue new restrictions on travel to Mexico

From my archive of press clippings:

Stars and Stripes


Base commanders issue new restrictions on travel to Mexico


By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes

Pacific edition, Saturday, January 24, 2009

James B. Hoke/Courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps


A Marine at the Entertainment Ticket Office looks over brochures that give tips on how to stay safe while visiting border towns in Mexico like Tijuana.


WASHINGTON — Weekend trips across the Mexican border might be a thing of the past for servicemembers stationed in the southwest.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Over the last month, military bases along the United States’ southern border have issued new rules regarding travel into Mexico, requiring their personnel to get advance written permission to make the trip.

Defense Department officials said there is no force-wide ban on vacations into Mexico by military personnel, but they noted commanders at those southwest bases have issued new restrictions on their own because of increased violence and drug activity in border towns.

Those include a number of units that have recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. Marines and sailors stationed in California — at posts such as Camp Pendleton, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and Twentynine Palms — and those at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona were informed of the changes over the last few weeks."

"Since 2000 all Marines E-3 and below have been required to get permission to travel into Mexico. Now, Evans said, all personnel must get a liberty chit signed by an O-5 or higher before crossing the border.

Commanders at Fort Huachuca in Arizona issued similar restrictions in December."

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"Commanders at Fort Bliss in Texas have designated eight Mexican border towns as off-limits to their troops, except in cases where leadership allows visits for personal or family emergencies.
Last fall, the State Department issued new travel warnings regarding escalating battles between police and drug cartels in Mexican border towns."