Guatemala Angry Over
Seized Passports, Detentions In US
By AP
Hispanic Affairs Writer, The Associated
Press
MIAMI - The Guatemalan government claims
U.S. immigration officials improperly seized
Guatemalan passports issued to its citizens
in the U.S. and detained three people who
went to a Florida FedEx store to pick them
up.
FedEx employees at a Palm Beach County store
contacted Immigration and Customs
Enforcement special agents Jan. 6 after they
received about 40 packages, most of them
undeliverable, from a Louisiana-based
company. The employees, who had opened at
least one of the envelopes, said the
packages appeared to contain Guatemalan
passports that could have been fraudulent.
The passports were official.
But ICE officials took the passports and
waited till Jan. 11 to contact the
Guatemalan government, returning the
documents after Guatemalan Consul General in
Miami, Felipe Alejos Lorenzana, and an
attorney complained.
Meanwhile, on Jan. 6, FedEx employees also
contacted two of the men whose names were
listed on the packages. When the men came to
pick up their documents, they were detained
by ICE officials and deported because they
were in the U.S. illegally. A woman who
accompanied the men and was waiting outside
for them in a van with her 2-year-old son
was also detained and now faces deportation
proceedings.
"They didn't follow any of the right
diplomatic proceedings to identify whether
(the documents) were fraudulent or not,"
Alejos said Thursday. He said the consulate
was first contacted about the incident by a
local community group. He now worries
Guatemalans won't renew their passports for
fear of being detained by ICE.
ICE officials did not explain the delay in
contacting the Guatemalan government.
Agency spokeswoman Nicole Navas said in a
statement that ICE held onto the passports:
"pending verification that the shipper was a
contractor with the Guatemalan government in
producing passports and to verify the
passports were legitimate."
She said document fraud poses a severe
threat to national security and public
safety because it "may enable terrorists,
criminals, and illegal aliens to gain entry
to and remain in the United States."
Alejos said the company that sent the
documents has contracted with the Guatemalan
government for more than eight years,
providing thousands of passports each month
to Guatemalans in the U.S. He said the
consulate has canceled all contracts with
FedEx.
FedEx officials said Tuesday that they had
repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to reach
the company that sent the passports before
opening the undeliverable packages. FedEx
said some individuals had been contacted
before the Jan. 6 incident and had
successfully picked up their passports.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
