Comment Submitted by David J. Stefko

Dear DHS, I am a United States citizen born and raised in Southern California. I am also a private pilot. My family and I have traveled south of the border into Mexico for years, mostly for vacation with the exception of one event. After hurricane John wreaked havoc on the Baja penninsula in 2006, many private citizens went down in their private aircraft to help the locals who lost everything. This not to mention the doctors and others who regularly fly down offering desparatly needed medical attention and supplies. I would do anything to protect this Country of ours, anything. However, we are America because we value the freedoms we have and those freedoms need protecting above all else. Even our national security needs to be weighed against our freedoms. If we lock ourselves in this Country, keeping us in and everyone else out, are we really free and are we really safe. Based on the proposed rule, the implementation of which would be disasterous for tourism, trade and travel. Before any final rule is made, I would recommend someone at a decision making level in DHS make a journey south of the border by private (not charter, not government) but private aircraft and find out the complexities and realities of what is being proposed. For real time information on the potential problems involved please contact the Baja Bush Pilots association, Flying Samaitians, Liga International just to name a few. Thank you for the opportunity to make this correspondense.