(NewsNation) — In an internal alert sent to Border Patrol agents, the Department of Homeland Security is warning of fake passports coming out of Guinea.
The alert, sent to agents in the Tuscon sector of Arizona, says officials within the Guinean government may have coached some of these migrants to change the ages on their passports in order to enter the U.S. classified as an unaccompanied minor. This is done under the notion that it would increase their chances of remaining in the U.S.
This is said to be the work of a criminal group in Guinea that allegedly stole blank passports and is now selling them with falsified information. The DHS alert told agents to be on the lookout for Guinean passports issued in the country’s capital after June 2023.
NewsNation has encountered discarded, buried or burned documents from Guinea and other countries along the border in Lukeville, Arizona, on multiple occasions.
Republican Arizona Rep. Juan Ciscomani says this is a troubling practice that needs to be addressed.
“Unfortunately, it’s the easiest to come into the country with whatever you have, and they’re still going to those to that extent to prove that they’re somebody else, that’s troubling,” Ciscomani told NewsNation. “Why are these passports and these IDs being burned? To fake an age? Fake an ID? To claim asylum when you’re from a country that maybe doesn’t qualify?”
This underscores what FBI Director Christopher Wray calls a lack of intelligence. Former Border Patrol chiefs have testified that if a migrant enters the U.S. and their entry doesn’t raise any flags — as in, they don’t have an immigration infraction and haven’t committed a crime in the U.S. — the agents have to take their word for it as far as their identity goes.