Wikileaks Liberia - Adoption Fraud

Source: wikileaks.org

Publication date: 30 March 2009

¶6. (SBU) ADOPTION FRAUD:

Post was informed on January 14, 2008, that the GOL suspended

adoption processing by the adoption service providers (ASPs) Acres

of Hope (AOH) and the West African Children Support Network (WACSN)

following allegations of sexual assault and failure to adhere to

exit procedures. Subsequently, the President of Liberia announced

on January 26 that processing of all/all inter-country adoptions was

suspended. The President announced the suspension will last until

the GOL ratifies the new Child Protection Act, which calls for the

institution of new adoption regulations. The GOL has not given a

timeframe for lifting the suspension, but on March 25, Post heard

the new Child Protection Act, which contains provisions for

adoption, is on the President's desk.

Meanwhile, adoption disruptions continue in the United States by

parents who have adopted Liberian children. Some of these

disruptions have at their root fraud committed by ASPs. In one

disruption, which resulted in a child's abandonment then

repatriation to child protective services in the United States, AOH,

the ASP who had the child adopted, alleged a child was 10 years old

and had documents (birth certificates, adoption decrees, passports)

created that stated the same. In reality, according to the adopting

family, the child is probably at least 12 or 13 years old. The

adopting family was not expecting to adopt a preteen and thus,

experienced several incidents with the child, which eventually

resulted in his abandonment back in Liberia. In another case, which

also resulted in the repatriation of a previously adopted Liberian

child (also through AOH), the ASP purported the age of a child to be

11, when in reality she is probably 16 or 17. These disruptions are

indicative of a larger trend of age fraud by ASPs and have led to a

more thorough examination by interviewing consular officers, as well

as by Post's panel physician, of adopted children's purported versus

actual ages. In several cases before the adoption suspension, the

consular chief warned adopting parents that their adoptive children

were probably well above the ages purported on their documents. In

one case, the ASP was asked to change a child's breeder documents to

more accurately reflect the child's true age - the ASP refused.

Additionally, before adoptions were suspended, Post continued to see

cases where DNA testing excluded the relinquishing parent as the

biological parent of the child as well as several cases where there

were neither death certificates nor records for allegedly deceased

parents.

…..

Viewing cable 09MONROVIA227, FRAUD SUMMARY - LIBERIA, SEPTEMBER - FEBRUARY 2009

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin

09MONROVIA227 2009-03-30 16:09 2011-08-30 01:44 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Monrovia

VZCZCXYZ0002

RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMV #0227/01 0891609

ZNR UUUUU ZZH (CCY AD49CF61 MSI2864-695)

R 301609Z MAR 09 ZDS

FM AMEMBASSY MONROVIA

TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0905

INFO RUEHPNH/NVC PORTSMOUTH 0289

RUEHFT/AMCONSUL FRANKFURT 1164

RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS MONROVIA 000227

SIPDIS

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y (RENUMBERED PARAGRAPHS)

DEPT FOR CA/FPP FOR MELISSA A LEDESMA-LEESE

DEPT FOR CA/FPP PLEASE PASS TO DHS

DEPT FOR AF/W FOR NOLE GAREY

DEPT FOR CA/VO/KCC

ECOWAS POSTS FOR FRAUD PREVENTION MANAGERS

FRANKFURT FOR RCO RONALD S PACKOWITZ

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC LI

SUBJECT: FRAUD SUMMARY - LIBERIA, SEPTEMBER - FEBRUARY 2009

REF: 08 STATE 074840

REF: 08 MONROVIA 346

REF: 08 MONROVIA 762

(U) Post's fraud summary fQ September - February 2009 follows

according to REFTEL:

¶1. (U) COUNTRY CONDITIONS:

Liberia continues its gradual recovery from fourteen years of civil

war. Limited parts of the capital city, Monrovia, have electricity

and the city still lacks a functioning water/sewer system and

telephone network; health care is substandard. Government

institutions are in need of capacity building - corruption and

document fraud are rampant. The literacy rate is less than 20%.

It is, therefore, not surprising visa fraud is an everyday

occurrence at Embassy Monrovia. Immigration from Liberia to the

United States remains the desire of many Liberians given our unique

relationship and shared history. There are an estimated 500,000

Liberians who have settled in the U.S. The drive to join those

family members makes visa adjudication a high stakes game.

¶2. (SBU) NIV FRAUD:

NIV fraud continues: most applicants are standard unqualified

travelers refused 214(b); however four applicants were refused

212(a)(6)(c) from September to February, including two G4 visa

applicants.

Applicants continue to submit all manner of fraudulent letters of

invitation, bank statements, and employment documentation. The

Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) ADIS (Arrival and Departure

Information System) tool has been indispensable in investigating

overstays and SEVIS violations. In one case this reporting period,

a previous J1 visa recipient, whose alleged wife and child

accompanied him as J2 and J3s in July 2008, applied in early

February for a B1/B2 visa. At the time of his B1/B2 application, a

search of ADIS showed that the applicant's wife and child had not

yet departed the United States. When questioned about this, the

applicant averred his wife and child had returned to Liberia. The

application was suspended 221(g) pending additional evidence of

their return - an appearance at the consular section was suggested.

As of late March, the applicant has not returned, suggesting, as

ADIS indicated, this alleged wife and child remain in the United

States in overstay or some other, potentially illegal, status.

The facial recognition and IDENT tools continue to enable officers

to identify applicants applying with different names, nationalities,

and dates of birth from the time/s of their last application/s.

Inconsistent spellings and rendering of birth dates on official

Liberian documents is widespread and troubling. Even among GOL

applicants, officials have applied for visas using different dates

of birth, and in some cases, different names. These applications do

not always appear in the standard NIV application name check, so

officers frequently utilize the "CA Applicant Lookup" tool in the

Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) to get a thorough picture of an

individual's application history.

¶3. (U) IV FRAUD:

During this reporting period, 71 family based petitions were

returned to the National Visa Center with a recommendation for

revocation - of these petitions, 21 were based on DNA test results.

DNA testing has been especially effective in combating fraud in IR2

cases. For example, this reporting period in cases when American

citizen (or LPR) parents have petitioned for multiple children, at

least one of the alleged children (in a group of two to five cross

referenced cases) has not/not been a biological relative of the

petitioner. In cases where the petitioner is the father of the IR2,

there is decent chance the petitioner legitimately did not know

before DNA testing whether or not the child was his biologically.

However, there have been several cases where petitioner mothers have

tried to "slip through" extra children as beneficiaries. It is

highly unlikely that the birth mother of a child would not know if a

child was hers biologically. Yet, DNA results excluded many

"biological mothers" as the blood relatives of beneficiaries during

the reporting period, indicating these petitioners were attempting

alien or relative smuggling.

Another interesting trend of note is, again, in groups of cross

referenced beneficiaries of American citizen or LPR fathers, when

DNA testing has been conducted between the petitioner and multiple

beneficiaries, the child in the group whose DNA results do not

confirm the alleged relationship usually bears the

father/petitioner's name with the designation of junior (Jr.). In

at least three cases this reporting period, the petitioner's

"junior" child (again, the child with the same name as the

petitioner father) was the only child amongst a group of

beneficiaries who did not have a biological relationship with the

petitioner. This indicates, like fraud with biological mother

petitioners, there are consistent attempts by petitioners to smuggle

non-biological children through the immigrant visa system by any

means necessary.

A dearth of secondary evidence continues to make adjudication of

marriage and fianc(e) cases difficult. Conveniently, proof of bona

fida relationships is "missing" due to the "war," a "fire," or a

"robber." While this is likely the situation in some cases, it is

certainly not true across the board, as applicants would have

officers believe. Accurint, the Consular Consolidated Database

(CCD), DNA testing, and neighborhood investigations are relied upon

heavily in order to authenticate claimed relationships.

¶4. (U) DV FRAUD:

Between IV and DV (Diversity Visa) from September to February, 54

cases were refused 212(a)(6)(c)(1), 8 cases were refused

212(a)(6)(c)(2), and 2 cases were refused 212(a)(6)(e). The bulk of

6(c) refusals were DV cases in September 2008, the closing month of

the DV program for 2008. In fact, in September alone, 37 DV

applicants were refused 6(c)(1), one was refused 6(c)(2), and two

were refused 6(e). Predictably, in the last month of DV, applicants

made last ditch efforts to meet the educational qualifications of

the program by submitting fraudulent documents. The number of DV

imposters also increased during the last month of the program.

Since September, one DV applicant who could not read or write openly

admitted to having obtained a fraudulent diploma and West African

Examination Council (WAEC) certificate from Assemblies of God High

School through her uncle. Another set of WAEC results from this

high school was also recently confirmed by the WAEC office as

fraudulent. Said high school has replaced Muslim Congress High

School (see REFTEL) as the school of choice from which to receive

fraudulent documents specifically for DV. Undoubtedly, when

applicants receive word Post is savvy to Assemblies of God High

School malfeasance, this fraud pattern will replicate itself with

another secondary institution. Diplomas from the Monrovia

Consolidated School System also appear to have been given to

applicants who have not completed high school. In one case, the

applicant crumpled her diploma to give the appearance it was old -

issued in the 1990s - even though it otherwise appeared new. In

fact, the computer technology used to create this diploma would not

have been available in the middle of the civil war when it was

alleged to have been rendered.

Post continues to see pop-up and clip-on spouses and children, the

most insidious of which have been refused for alien smuggling. The

consular investigator, through neighborhood investigations, has also

discovered and increasing number of "single" applicants (applicants

who have entered the DV lottery alone) living with wives and

children, grounds for a 5(A) refusals.

Another recent trend is for applicants to submit recent name change

documents in order for their educational documents, which are in a

different name, to look like theirs. What seems to be happening is:

applicants are purchasing a set of legitimate documents in one name,

and then getting paperwork to indicate they have changed their name

from that name to the name with which they entered the DV lottery.

However, many of these names bear no correspondence to one another -

there have been cases where applicants have supposedly changed their

first, middle, and last names in the time between completing high

school and entering the DV lottery. A text search in CCD of one

applicant's alleged name during high school, which was different

than his current "changed" name, showed that the applicant was

actually attempting to submit his brother's high school documents as

his own. While documents might be confirmed as genuine by the

authorities, the DV applicants with the alleged name changes are not

the documents' true owners.

¶5. (U) ACS AND PASSPORT FRAUD:

There is no doubt thousands of Liberians in the United States

wrestle with very complicated immigration issues and statuses. As

the diaspora returns home, these issues emerge both on the visa line

and at the ACS window. Officers have recently discovered during the

course of visa interviews that Liberians previously residing in the

United States were able to work by falsely claiming to be United

States citizens. One immigrant visa applicant swore an oath on his

I-9 that he was an American citizen in order to work for the state

of New Jersey. Another applied for a NIV after alleging during

American citizen hours that he was alternately a citizen and an LPR.

If Delayed Enforced Departure (DED) eventually comes to a close for

Liberians, findings of false claims to U.S. citizenship will rise in

the adjudication of passport and visa applications.

During this period, two teenagers claiming to be American citizens

without any documentation of their citizenship were interviewed.

The teenagers went so far as to state American high school and

supposed relatives' names in the United States. However, PIERS,

Accurint, and other searches produced no results; neither are

American citizens. When one was asked to provide additional proof

of his status in the United States, he never returned. This

individual also stated that he "heard there was a form you could

fill out to get a plane ticket back to the United States." Officers

hear this widespread myth about repatriation loans frequently. The

bar for receiving a repatriation loan is high, however, and to date

Post does not believe the system is being abused.