Border officials in Arizona are seeing an increase in migrants from the West African country of Guinea claiming to be minors and carrying fake passports.
New arrivals falsely identify themselves as unaccompanied minors and change their age to improve their chances of entering the United States. Fox News Digital reported.said an internal memo from the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Area Intelligence Unit.
“Guinean government officials may be advising people getting new passports to change their age for a better change of entry to the United States as a minor.” A warning is given along with an example of a Guinean passport.
“Guinean passports issued in Conakry after June 2023 are most likely suspected to have been forged or tampered with,” the memo added.
One migrant also claimed that an “illegal group” had stolen several blank passport books from the ministry in Conakry and was “selling and issuing passports without proper procedures,” the border guard said.
Fox News claimed the alert was lifted after hundreds of Guinean men entered the United States through the Tuscon area.
Nearly 170 Guineans crossed through the area on Saturday alone, the newspaper reported, citing border security officials.
Chad Wolf, former Acting Secretary of Homeland Security told “Fox & Friends” He said the allegations surrounding fake passports were “deeply concerning,” especially after a record number of migrants crossed the southern border in December.
“Smugglers and cartels know that when you have such overwhelming numbers, Border Patrol is overwhelmed,” Wolf explained.
“They are instructing individuals on how to cross the border and, if necessary, change their passports so they can enter the country,” he added.
“The system is broken,” he lamented.
