Lukeville crossing

[New_Mexico_Road]

Anyone know of any problems with crossing at lukeville?

[robatthelake]

If you miss the huge New and pretty obvious building and it’s three entrances there is always the Empalme Facility on 15D just South of San Carlos/ Guaymas and Empalme! The building on the right side of the Highway will help you out even though the Sign says simply ONLY SENORA !

[hypoxia]

lakeside013104 wrote:
children sprayed something from a plastic bottle on our front bumper. When we got to the USA the K-9 barked at our front bumper.

The assumption was the children were responsible. If so the US Border Patrol would have been inundated that day, you would not be the only ones. Perhaps that was the case though, who knows. I've crossed many borders and have wondered sometimes about the opportunity that could be taken by a smuggler using you and following you to retrieve whatever it was.

Taking a camper across a border can be intimidating, it's hard to keep track of what may be prohibited items in the house you live in for many months. Each side of the border has a different list of prohibited items. If you normally travel with weapons, ammo etc. you may forget they are there. One empty shell casing can be a major problem. We were caught with a piece of uncooked Mexican sausage in the refrigerator. I have no idea how we missed that but it cost me several hundred bucks and the loss of my Global Entry and TSA Precheck.

[qtla9111]

lakeside013104 wrote:

hypoxia wrote:

New Mexico Roadrunner wrote:
Anyone know of any problems with crossing at lukeville?

No Problems

Sundays are very busy getting back to USA. Long lines of returning traffic.


We crossed and the children would wash our windshield for a quarter. Other children sprayed something from a plastic bottle on our front bumper. When we got to the USA the K-9 barked at our front bumper. We were ordered out of the RV, handcuffed, and escorted inside the building and questioned for over two hours as to where the 'dope' was in our RV. The RV was completely searched and in disarray and we found holes poked into our ceiling from some sort of probe.

After much stress, we were released to continue our journey. Wife was so upset, she had to go to the ER. Not fun.

Motto of story, don't let anyone spray anything on to your RV. Could cause you problems.

We decided that we will never return to Mexico. It might be beautiful, and cheap to live there, but it is also dangerous and too much hassle to get back into the USA.

Too much to see in America and Canada to return south of the border.

Lakeside

So from what I understand, it was U.S. Customs who tore your rig apart.

You can file a claim to have it repaired.

If this is true, you have no issue with Mexico. Why would a kid spray something on your rv to make customs officials think you had drugs in your rv?

I don't get it.

Yep, Canada and the U.S. are beautiful.

[Talleyho69]

You are correct about crossing on Sunday. We were accustomed to no wait time at all crossing there until we crossed on a Sunday. The traffic returning from Puerto Penasco can back up.

Personal experience and research show that drug dogs give a passive alert response-sitting, laying down or occasionally digging at the source, but barking is not allowed.

It sounds like you had a horrible experience.

The only time we have been separated from our vehicle was in 1982 in Tijuana. We were not handcuffed, but were searched. It is the only time we were ever taken into an office and out of sight of our vehicle.

When we cross the border into the US, we always make sure that we are absolutely legal. Consequently we have found the different checks interesting instead of stressful.

[lakeside013104]

hypoxia wrote:

New Mexico Roadrunner wrote:
Anyone know of any problems with crossing at lukeville?

No Problems

Sundays are very busy getting back to USA. Long lines of returning traffic.


We crossed and the children would wash our windshield for a quarter. Other children sprayed something from a plastic bottle on our front bumper. When we got to the USA the K-9 barked at our front bumper. We were ordered out of the RV, handcuffed, and escorted inside the building and questioned for over two hours as to where the 'dope' was in our RV. The RV was completely searched and in disarray and we found holes poked into our ceiling from some sort of probe.

After much stress, we were released to continue our journey. Wife was so upset, she had to go to the ER. Not fun.

Motto of story, don't let anyone spray anything on to your RV. Could cause you problems.

We decided that we will never return to Mexico. It might be beautiful, and cheap to live there, but it is also dangerous and too much hassle to get back into the USA.

Too much to see in America and Canada to return south of the border.

Lakeside

[hypoxia]

New Mexico Roadrunner wrote:
Anyone know of any problems with crossing at lukeville?

No Problems

[navigator2346]

One year they wanted to see the toad registration. Another year they came in and looked down the coach. That was it for us.

They looked n your friends coach and asked the wife "gato bite?" That was it.

[Talleyho69]

It was always our favorite spot to exit Mexico and except for a couple weird years, several years ago, our favorite to enter Mexico.

[ykphil]

New Mexico Roadrunner wrote:
Anyone know of any problems with crossing at lukeville?

As of April 2019, no issue at Lukeville, both ways. The only problem I had was to find the new Banjercito and immigration building, it used to be at Caborca 100 km south of the border so I drove there, only to find the building closed, so I had to drive back north to the new location.

Things may have changed since then, hopefully someone will chime in.