TravellinHusker

I am very interested to know where you heard this or read about this. Under US Constitutional law, states are forbidden from having contact with foreign officials for the purpose of arrest, extradition, etc.. That is solely the right of the federal government. So, if the OP has a state warrant in Texas, and Texas wants her back, and Texas knows she is out of the country, then Texas would have to negotiate with the feds to pick up her charges and negotiate with the foreign country to get her into custody. In otherwords, only federal warrants can be listed in Interpol. Even if she has a state warrant and she is denied boarding in Shannon, Ireland for example, she cannot be detained by the authorities nor can extradition even be talked about unless the feds want her on the probation violation. Ireland however can expel her from the country for being "undesirable". It depends on what she did. In Ireland and the UK, the definition of being "undesirable" or of "questionable character" means that the crime you were found guilty of carried a maximum prison term of 1 year or more. So, if she was guilty of writing a bad check less than $500 in Texas, and was charged with any class misdemeanor, the maximum prison is 1 year or less in every class. If she was charged with a felony, then the maximum penalty, even for the lowest class is 2 years, therefore she would be eligible to be deported.
If she was on simple probation, I highly doubt any federal entity would be interested in wasting their resources on her.

Always Flyin

You no doubt need to hire a lawyer in Texas to resolve this for you.

The biggest unknown here is the crime for which you were given probation.

Not all warrants are entered into the national system run by the FBI (NCIC). It is extremely unlikely that any misdemeanors are entered at all (although the system allows "serious" misdemeanors to be entered), and even many lower-level felonies are not.

If the state is not willing to come get you, they usually won't put it in the system at all. When they do, they may declare a specified region (usually bordering states) where they will come and get you.

A lot of Southern states just put it in their own state system, which has the effect of saying, "As long as you don't come back, we don't care."

If it's DUI, it is very unlikely that it was entered in a warrant system outside of Texas. Your drivers license revocation, however, is nationwide.

Hire a lawyer and have them go figure it out before you try and come back. At least that way you'll know what to expect. Depending on the underlying crime, the lawyer can probably get the warrant withdrawn and a new court date set.

alanR

In most countries "customs" would just be interested in the goods you are carrying and would not do passport checks.

However Immigration would

catocony

You should fly into Juarez or Nuevo Laredo or Matamoros or whichever Mexican border city is closest to where you need to go, then walk across at a reentry point. I know it's supposed to be 100% passport these days but plenty of people are still crossing with just a drivers license and verbal declaration. I haven't walked back from Mexico for a few years, but in all the times I have (dozens) in San Ysidro, Douglas, Nogales, Reynosa, etc etc, they've never checked anything, whether I used a drivers license or, once or twice, a passport.

That's probably your best bet. They'll definitely check your passport if you fly. They probably won't if you walk across from Mexico.

FlyingHoustonian

The Texas Rangers have gone outside of the US for decades-not to make arrests but for other law enforcement duties. For example, The FBI had the Texas Rangers go into Mexico to help convince family members to make their serial killer relative head back over to El Paso. I know they have worked directly with the RCMP on extraditions before as well.

Ciao,
FH

FlyingHoustonian

I think this changed in the US with a reorg under DHS where CBP-customs and border protection, was created.

Ciao,
FH

MikeMpls

So the Texas computer "negotiates" with the federal computer --takes about 100 milliseconds.

TravellinHusker

Ok, I called my sister-in-law who is an International Defence Attorney. I asked her specific questions about this. Perhaps I did not explain it well in my first posting, but, it is much more than just a computer "negotiation". If Texas wants her for any reason on state charges, by federal law, the State of Texas is forbidden to ask or negotiate with Ireland or UK or any foreign government. Period. If a state does, and it happens from time to time, the foreign government is required to report it to the US State Department and file a complaint. That usually results in some major pi&&ing matches because the State Dept does not like non-federal entities meddling in affairs that could potentially have far-reaching consequences on different diplomatic fronts. There are 2 types of extradition treaties: 1) List Crimes, which means that the treaty between the US gov't and the other country is only valid for specific and certain list of crimes.. and, 2) Dual-Criminality, in which both countries have the same crime on the books (this can be touchy.. for example, Canada does not have "conspiracy laws" like the US.. so, you could not be extradited from Canada to the US if the US charged you with a "conspiracy" crime).
If a state wants you, but you are out of reach, they have to convince the feds to take the case or to negotiate on their behalf. The feds must then negotiate with the other country to find you and arrest you with the intent to extradite back to the US. However, part of the extradition is that the feds CANNOT drop the charges only to allow the state to pick it back up. If they do, then this is a severe violation of the treaty and will create HUGE problems for any future extraditions. If they are only negotiating on behalf of a state, the other government can force the feds to force the state to make concessions. For example, in a capital murder case it would be impossible for any EU nation to extradite him/her back to the US. The state would have to guarantee to the feds that the death penalty could never be an option for punishment. If the state agreed, then the extradition could take place.
According to my sister-in-law, depending on the country, the person, the crime, and the circumstances, it can take anywhere from a year to forever to arrange extradition. It is not uncommon to have very long periods of time for negotiations to take place.

Roy2CDG

not entirely true... a person charged/convicted of first-time DUI will not be allowed into Canada. have not idea how Canada manages to get info from the State of Texas... on the other hand, most Canadian border guards just wave you over, if crossing via land...

Deeg

Some agencies in Canada have access to the US NCIC and NLETS systems. Similarly, some US agencies have access to Canada's CPIC system.

awardpro

My son hit a child with a rock crazy mom got a restraing order. When we come into the county they take us and ask questions. You had better get a lawyer. YOU WILL BE DETAINED

#10

From another thread regarding what the CBP officers see on your passport screen:

gj83

nevermind.

stupidhead

Why would a restraining order cause detention? Restraining orders only say you can't be within X distance of a certain person.

ls17031

Care to read part XIII of the Criminal Code?... unless you're referring to something akin to RICO statutes, which are also covered in the Cr. C.

Cheers