Border authorities in Arizona are seeing an uptick of migrants from the West African country of Guinea toting fake passports claiming that they are minors.
The new arrivals are altering their ages in order to pretend they are unaccompanied minors for a better chance at getting into the US, Fox News Digital said, citing an internal memo from the U.S Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector Intelligence Unit.
“Officials from the Guinean government may be advising people obtaining new passports they can change their age for them to have a better change of entering the United States as minors,” the alert cautioned, alongside examples of authentic and doctored Guinean passports.
“It’s suspected that Guinean passport issued in Conakry after June of 2023 are most likely fraudulent or altered,” the memo added.
One migrant also claimed that an “illicit group” stole several blank passport books from the ministry in Conakry and “has been selling and issuing the passports without proper procedures,” Border Patrol explained.
The alert was released as hundreds of Guinean men have been crossing into the US through the Tuscon sector, Fox News claimed.
Nearly 170 Guinean nationals crossed through the area on Saturday alone, the outlet said, citing Border Patrol sources.
Former Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told “Fox & Friends” that the allegations surrounding faked passports were “very concerning” – particularly in the wake of December’s record number of migrants that crossed the southern border.
“Any time that you have such overwhelming numbers…it overwhelms the border patrol, and so the smugglers and the cartels, they know this,” Wolf explained.
“They’re coaching individuals how to get across that border, how to alter passports if they need to, so that they can be released into the country,” he added.
“The system is broken,” he lamented.