Border Agents in the Tucson, Arizona sector are seeing an influx of immigrants from Guinea using fake passports to claim they are minors when entering the United States illegally, according to an internal alert obtained by Fox News.
The illegal immigrants are changing their ages and pretending to be unaccompanied minors so they’ll have a better chance of getting into the U.S.
The Border Patrol notice advises agents on what to look out for, and provides examples of real and fake Guinean passports. It warns that passports issued in the municipality of Conakry, Guinea’s capital, after June 2023 are “most likely fraudulent or altered.”
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An internal Border Patrol notice obtained by Fox News. It warns agents to be on the lookout for fake passports some illegal immigrants are using to pose as minors to enter the U.S. (US Border Patrol)
The notice also alerts agents that the Guinean government might be playing a direct role in the fraud. Custodial interviews with Guinean migrants with suspected phony passports indicate that Guinean government officials “may be advising people obtaining new passports they can change their age for them to have a better chance of entering the United States as minors.”
The West African country of Guinea as seen on a map. (Getty Images)
Most encounters, Border Patrol notes, are from adults claiming to be unaccompanied children.
Another migrant, according to Border Patrol, noted that an “illicit group” stole many blank passport books from the ministry in Conakry and “has been selling and issuing the passports without the proper procedures.”
A U.S. Border Patrol agent checks for identification of immigrants as they wait to be processed by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the border from Mexico on December 30, 2022, in Yuma, Arizona. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)
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The alert comes as hundreds of adult men from Guinea have been crossing into the Tucson sector. Border Patrol sources estimate that nearly 170 Guinean nationals crossed in the Tucson sector on Saturday alone.
