GeoffM

Ok, so we did this last week . Drove through San Diego to Tijuana (hardly any checkpoint), encountered a road closure immediately on the Mexican side, so we were diverted, followed the GPS, misunderstood a 3-way split when it said keep right (should have been middle), and ended up back at the US border with no way to turn back. On our second attempt (when we actually intended to, a few days later) we only saw one sign which was more of a "US this way" rather than "US only, no returns". Not a US problem being the Mexican side but still.

Watching the TV docuseries on US CBP on mostly the northern (ie from Canada) checkpoints and it seems quite a few manage this as well - albeit head into Canada when they never intended to, so get additional examination when re-entering the US, presumably without documentation in some cases.

So why is it so hard to turn back at the border? An opportunity to catch a few crims? Or what?

I've only ever been to, or seen, a couple of other land borders in the world and it's pretty easy to turn around. With the masses of people entering the US it's not as easy - San Ysidro (San Diego) is 26 lanes IIRC so just cutting across to a U-turn is nigh on impossible at peak times.

On a side note: small town Mexico is great away from the tourist hell of Cancun, Tijuana, etc. We drove about 3 hours south of Ensenada to our US neighbor's Mexican property for their kid's party.

scrubbedexpat091

There used to be turn points one could turn around.

At one crossing I use in BC\WA state you can still see where the u turn point was and is now blocked.

San Ysidro has always been tricky due to size. Its still as far as I know the busiest land border and large and I missed the last US exit once in 1998 and ended up in Mexico.

Back then it was easy to cross back with only needing photo ID so was not an issue.

jamesmc

just passing from from the Canada forum ...but out in the sticks on the gravel its very easy in our area to cross over into the states and vice versa by mistake..nothing like looking in the mirror and the sign is in miles lol..quick turnaround and hope the drones haven't noticed

Lion in Winter

I once went to Canada by mistake due to a wrong turn, crossing near Niagara. Turned around when I could and they waved me back in, along with my three Mexican passengers (a man and two teenage girls), without even much of a look It must have happened before.

rpjs

First time we visited Canada it was by foot at Niagara Falls. We didn't realize that the turnstile gate was the exit to Canada; we assumed we'd need to be processed out by the US so went in the office, where we processed *in* and exited to exactly where we'd been a few minutes before...

scrubbedexpat091

Pt. Roberts, WA along the border there is a beach.

Quite easy to accidently walk into Canada or the US.

No fence just a concrete thing with a sign on it.

One side is the US and the other side is Canada.




Children from Pt. Roberts to get to school have to take a school bus cross into Canada, drive 20 or so mins to the next border crossing and then cross back into the US to their school.

Hyder Alaska is a bit unique in that you can cross into the US legally there without having to go through any US border control as none exist there.

Cross back into Canada however you do need to go through Canada border control.

Only way in and out of Hyder is through Canada.

87 people live there.

GeoffM

Glad it's not just me. Thankfully the line to get through primary was "only" an hour or so. When we returned on a Monday night a few days later the queue was 3 hours.

plasticbag_uk

I drive a food tanker for a living and it involves going into Canada quite often, obviously carrying cargo is far different to just visiting or otherwise, we now have 'E' manifests for whatever we are carrying there is a big fine if the 'E' manifest is not set up and we get held up by customs. I am a green card holder and find it is a real pain coming back into the USA sometimes, the increased security since 9/11 has made it harder. I use my British passport to enter and leave Canada, I rarely get any problems with immigration going north but seem to be grilled by INS on return, even though some of the guys actually know me fairly well and sometimes at the border I am greeted with a "Hi Pat, how you doin' today ?"
Next time the same guy can be a bit of a sod and looks at me as if I am Osama Bin Laden, most times I am sent in to the building with passport and green card in hand where I have to pay $13.00 in order to re-enter the USA. Some days they tell me to just carry on, it seems the $13.00 is up to what mood they are in.
I do always visit duty free on the way back, the range of English Cadbury stuff for very low prices is great, a box of 24 Flakes for $19.00 (Canadian).

tom169

I guess no undocumented students live there either.