Welcome to the March 2017 edition of our Passport News Roundup! We have some wild stories to cover this month. We'll look at everything from passport lines to passport seizures... with a passport snack in between! This month's passport news features baseball stars, rappers, and the President of the United States.
Come with us as we review the hottest passport news stories from all across the United States and beyond.
Watch Me (Stand in Line for a Passport)
Back in November, we wrote an article asking if
Trump's election would cause a passport rush. Less than four months later, it looks like we have a clear answer, and that answer is yes! Media outlets around the country are reporting on crowds of people jamming
passport acceptance facilities seeking to get US passports.
The State Department had already expected a higher than normal number of passport applications in 2017, but last month's well-publicized
immigration raids have prompted a new surge of applications.
In
Travis County, Texas, the local Passport Acceptance Facility says that applicants are starting to line up at 5 A.M. every morning, three hours before the facility opens at 8 o'clock. Many of the people in line are families of undocumented parents seeking to get passports for their US-born children. A
report from CBS News in Sacramento, California featured a mother who expressed the fears of many immigrant parents. She was seeking a US passport for her 11 year old son, not just to allow him to stay in the US, but to give him the freedom to travel if she is deported. More than anything, she feared being separated from her son. If he does not have a valid passport, he would not be able to travel with her back to her home country if she is deported.
It's not just US passports that are being sought - consulates of countries like Mexico and El Salvador report that they also are seeing an increase in passport applications. Families of undocumented immigrants are seeking passports from their native countries to make sure they can all travel together if one member is deported.
