I need to resurrect this thread for some advice. Mods if there is a better place, please redirect.

First let me start with, I know that better planning helps avoid the following problem. With that said, I'm turning to this helpful community to see if anyone has information that I don't.

I just received a frantic phone call from my s-i-l. She, my brother and kids are scheduled to head from Oregon to Mexico on Saturday. Last week she pulled out their passports and discovered hers was set to expire in July. She called the airline who told her they wouldn't let her board and that she needed a new passport. No mention of timatic by the airline. She didn't hang-up and call again, or call me, until today.

She found an expeditor, sent off the application the next day. Then they called her saying there was a problem with what she filled out, so she fixed it and sent it again. She was told they were using the Houston office, who shut down early the other day. She was called today by the expeditor that the State Dept is holding her passport because of some issue with the photo, but didn't have any details. The expeditor claimed the State Department emailed her, but she doesn't have any message from them. The expeditor doesn't know how long it will take to get fixed.

Is there any way to get into Mexico w/out the passport. She has - birth certificate, marriage license, color copy of her passport and US driver's license? She is a US citizen.

Do you have any suggestions so she can salvage her trip? Or at least leave with my brother & the kids, who she said would go on Saturday w/out her, if necessary?