Mervin “Louis” Guassac, better known as Louie, was born and raised in San Diego County. Mr. Guassac is a member of the Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians where he serves as Chair of the HIP Committee and Co-Chair of the Economic Development Committee, Kumeyaay Cultural Repatriation Committee (KCRC), and Tribal Historian. Mr. Guassac was the lead person to Develop the first stand alone Indian Housing Authority on a reservation in the an Diego County that provided thirty-five HUD homes for tribal member’s (1989-1993). He is the owner and CEO of Guassac & Associates, an Indian owned consulting company and majority owner of Talking Rocks Media, LLC a starte of the art multi-media firm. The main purpose of Guassac & Associates is to identify economic development opportunities and to assist with diversifying tribal governments economic development portfolios. Louis Guassac is also the Executive Director of the Kumeyaay Border Task Force (KBTF) through the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians and KBTF is comprised of federally recognized Kumeyaay bands interested with resolving the pass and re-pass issue for Baja Kumeyaay tribal members.

KBTF has spent years educating various federal agencies of the aboriginal territory of Kumeyaay that spans the international border separating the United States (Southern California Region) and Mexico (Northern Baja California). Mr. Guassac with tribal government support directed KBTF in creating solid working relations with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service; Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA); Department of Justice; Office of Tribal Justice; United States Consulate (Tijuana); Mexican Consulate (San Diego); INI (Mexican BIA); Baja California Governor’s Office. In addition, KBTF played an important role in the recent passage of a Joint Resolution (AJR 60) of the State of California Assembly that in addition to supporting the continued pass and re-pass for Baja Kumeyaay but also acknowledging the Trans-Border status but also recognizing the aboriginal territory of Kumeyaay by the State of California.

Working Group Documents - Border Crossing

The excerpt below is from a June 25 proposed rule by Dept. of State:“Documents required for travelers departing from or arriving in the US at …ports of entry.” Their proposal is self-evident and the issue is whether US, Canada and Mexico tribal nations, or others, would have a united position regarding a response with recommendations.