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Border & Immigration

Tijuana Airport No Longer Accepting US Dollars

Tijuana Airport No Longer Accepting US Dollars
Pack your pesos if you plan to fly out of the Tijuana airport. The airport will not accept U.S. dollars starting September 11.

Pack your pesos if you plan to fly out of the Tijuana airport. The airport will not accept US dollars starting September 11th.

The change to pesos only at Tijuana's airport stems from a new federal law in Mexico intended to crack down on money laundering.

The law limits U.S. currency deposits to Mexican bank accounts to $4,000 a month for individuals. Businesses are limited to $7,000.

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Tijuana airport officials say they take in that amount of U.S. cash in just a few days. They say short of hiding dollars under a mattress, they had no choice but to stop accepting dollars.

Airport officials say people can still use U.S. credit cards to pay for parking.

Airport stores can choose to accept dollars or not. It is also up to the airlines whether to accept dollars for ticket purchases.

Airlines would reach their monthly U.S. cash deposit limit after selling about a dozen round trip tickets to Cancun.

Tijuana business groups say 40 percent of all cash in Tijuana is U.S. dollars.