User error.
Or do you think they shouldnt check the passport photos at all? Just that the age matches? Though even that could trip up an agent - as some kids look older/younger that their real age.
This US citizen lives in Tijuana and goes to school in US? I didnt get this part.
Do you truly not get the difference between checking passports and keeping the kids for 36 hours and hectoring one of them until he signs a "confession" that his sister is not his sister?
USER (the border security)
ERROR (he/she got it wrong)
But you have to have an alternative -
How would you like this handled (when photos seemingly do not match)? And what can of worms might that open?
Maybe you want no check points at all. Just say so.
When the photos don't match, assuming that they don't (which is undemonstrated in this case), I would like them to try a variety of options:
a) CONTACT THE (alleged) SCHOOL. If the kid is regularly at the school and the NINE year old they have matches the one the school is expecting, let the kid go to school!
b) CONTACT THE (alleged) PARENT. The parent may be able to provide the evidence that this child is who she says she is.
c) DNA test of the child and the (alleged) sibling. If they are siblings, the test will show that.
Kiiid, you say "user error" (and expect me to know what you mean by that), as if this is not an institutional problem. It is not just the person who stopped her, but whomever made the decision to keep her for 36 hours and whomever pressured the big brother to rat on her in what likely would not have been admissible interrogation to start with.
This is not ONE individual who screwed up. This was a problem by multiple people and we have no idea how often they do it.