Q. I am in the middle of a divorce process and my husband plans to take our kids to Mexico for April school vacation.  His brother lives there, and he goes to visit once a year. He is fighting me for custody of our kids, and he has the kind of job where he can work anywhere.  He was ordered to vacate our home, so he is renting a house on a monthly basis. There is nothing holding him here if he decides not to come back. My lawyer told me there is nothing I can do because he has the right to travel with the children during his vacation time and if I am worried just don’t sign the travel authorization letter for him to leave the country.

I have friends who have traveled out of the country with their children and never been asked for an authorization letter at the time of departure.  I am worried.  Do you think I have any grounds to object to this trip?

A. It sounds like you should be worried.  There are several ways to prevent travel to Mexico right now.  Your lawyer needs to file a motion with the court to prevent the trip.  You should visit the US State Department website to determine the right warning level to where your brother-in-law lives.  Many areas of Mexico are at a Level 4 “do not travel status” and other areas are a Level 3.  If your husband’s family lives in any area which is rated Level 3 or 4 you can appeal to the judge for your children’s safety.

If the issue is beyond just a trip to Mexico for vacation and a larger concern that if he gets the children out of the country he may head to Mexico and never return, that is even more important for the judge to know.  In that event, your lawyer can ask the judge for a Do Not Depart Order which, when issued, gets emailed to the State Department at PreventAbduction1@state.gov.  From there, the order will be passed on to Customs and Border Patrol for enforcement and your children will not be allowed to leave the country.

Ask that all passports for your children be turned over to you for safekeeping.  Alternatively, one of the lawyers can be ordered to hold them.  You should also ask that he be prevented from obtaining any additional passports for the children in both the US and any other country in which they could be entitled to a passport.

Email questions to whickey@brickjones.com