Originally Posted by
dlinsider
Dumb question but since they were denied in DFW is it possible they had no valid U.S Identification to board their AA flight??....As all adults in the U.S are required to have valid government issd I.D. to board domestic flights and could it be that their expired HKG passports were not valid documents to travel within the U.S?
Your post stating that all adults in the U.S. are required to have valid government issued ID to board domestic flights is incorrect. As others have already noted, TSA has procedures to deal with passengers who show up without ID.
Originally Posted by
beerup
Again, I'm going to believe the published guidelines of the CBP over the second-hand report of what a CBP officer said during a phone call. Even forgoing any misrepresentation of the actual wording, the written guidelines are more likely to be accurate than a information provided on the phone. Even in the event that the information in the PDF is incorrect, that is the information provided to carriers and so they are the guidelines carriers should be using.
I have to question the logic behind this regulation. If the receiving country is willing to accept the traveler, why does the US government want to make it harder to allow someone who is no longer legally in the U.S. to leave? Forcing them to get a removal order at US taxpayer expense seems the height of bureaucratic nonsense. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the US in practice turns a blind eye to this "infraction" in cases like these - hence the statement of the CBP officer.
That said, a statement over the phone is just that. It may reflect common practice, but if it isn't compliant with the regulation, it isn't something that you can rely on in a dispute.