PORTRAIT OF AN ALIEN SMUGGLER

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 001309

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR CA/FPP, CA/OCS/ACS, CA/VO

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CASC SMIG VM TIP
SUBJECT: PORTRAIT OF AN ALIEN SMUGGLER

REF: TASHKENT 003165


1. Reftel outlined a recent incident in which Amcit Tim Thai was
caught while apparently attempting to smuggle aliens with
photo-subbed Canadian passports through Uzbekistan. The story
of Mr. Thai's life over the past 25 years illustrates the
challenges facing our consular sections as we strive to provide
good passport and visa services to our Amcit and foreign clients
while still doing everything we can to prevent, rather than
facilitate, trafficking in persons (TIP). Mr. Thai's checkered
history is outlined below.


2. Subject: THAI, Tim, aka: THAI, Phong; DPOB: 04Sep1955, Vietnam


3. Background: Mr. Thai entered the United States in April 1980
as a refugee from Vietnam after spending one year in an
Indonesian first asylum camp. Mr. Thai's refugee camp biodata
form noted that he was a native-born Vietnamese citizen of
Chinese descent, whose mother tongue was 'Chiu Chow' (a southern
Chinese dialect with a large community of speakers found
primarily along the border between present-day Guangdong and
Fujian provinces in southeastern China). The other languages
that he claimed to speak on his biodata form were Vietnamese,
Mandarin, and two other southern Chinese dialects, Cantonese and
Fukien.


4. Citizenship: Mr. Thai became an American citizen on January
18, 1990, and was issued naturalization certificate no.

14045212. On his passport application of 28Jul2005, he claimed
to have been issued naturalization certificate no. 869663, dated
13Mar2001; DHS-HCM reports, however, that there is no record of
Mr. Thai ever being issued a naturalization certificate with
that number.


5. Passports: Since becoming a citizen in 1990, Mr. Thai has
received six passports, as follows:

-- 072025568, full validity, issued 14Mar1990
-- 073190912, full validity, issued 21Jan1993 (claimed previous
ppt stolen)
-- Z8188963, full validity, issued 18Jan2001
-- 038157673, full validity, issued 15May2002
-- 038387609, full validity, issued 30Jan2003
-- Z8410190, limited to one year, issued 28Jul2005 (claimed
previous ppt stolen)


6. Spouses/Petitions: Since Mr. Thai arrived in the U.S. in
1980, we are aware of six marriages that he has entered into,
along with five spousal IV petitions. What we know, which may
be incomplete, is the following:

-- Oct 1989: married to CHEN, Ming Su, POB: China; divorced Jun
1992 (no record in NIV, IVO or PIERS)
-- Oct 1993: petitioned for CHEN, Fengxia, POB: China; divorced
Oct 1996 (records in IVO and PIERS)
-- Mar 2001: petitioned for LIU, Xiu Qin, POB: China (record in
IVO, no record in PIERS)
-- Aug 2002: petitioned for TANG, Wen Fang, POB: China (record
in IVO; petition returned due to no proof of divorce from
previous spouse)
-- Jan 2003: petitioned for YING, ShaoYing, POB: China (record
in IVO; petition returned due to multiple wives)
-- Jul 2003: petitioned for HUANG, Ruyi, POB China (record in
IVO; petition returned due to multiple wives)


7. Criminal Record: Post understands that U.S. federal
authorities maintain files on Mr. Thai, and is aware of the
following encounters that he has had with law enforcement:

-- Jun 1997, Vietnam: arrested and convicted for counterfeiting;
released in May 2000 under an amnesty program after serving
three years of a seven year prison sentence.

-- Oct 2003, Netherlands: arrested at Amsterdam's Schiphol
Airport for alien smuggling while in transit on a flight from
Hong Kong to London; Mr. Thai was escorting two Chinese
nationals at the time of his arrest. He was released and
deported to the United States in March 2004.

-- Nov 2004, South Korea: identified by DHS-Seoul as the
facilitator for a female Chinese national imposter who was
attempting to board a flight to Los Angeles using genuine
unaltered U.S. passport no. 037621736 in the identity of DEA,
Melissa Mui Fong. The passport had been reported lost by Ms.
Dea in December 2002, and had previously been used by another
Chinese imposter who was intercepted at LAX in August 2001. A
review of Mr. Thai's passport during questioning showed
extensive recent travel to China, Hong Kong, Macao, Argentina,
Uruguay, South Africa, and Europe.

-- Dec 2004, U.S.: arrested for alien smuggling in Los Angeles;
the prosecution of the case was later dropped, and the case
closed, as of 23Feb2005.

-- Nov 2005, Uzbekistan (see reftel): detained by Uzbekistan
authorities on suspicion of fake travel documents and human
trafficking; later released. Local and U.S. authorities at the
scene believed that Mr. Thai was the traveling companion or
escort of two women from Vietnam (or possibly China, according
to the honorary Canadian consul in Tashkent),who were
determined to have traveled to Uzbekistan from Malaysia and were
attempting to board a flight to Paris on photo-subbed Canadian
passports. The Canadian Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City confirmed
that the Canadian passports in question had been reported
lost/stolen, and that the Canadian driver's licenses the women
were carrying were both counterfeits.


8. Employment: On some of his passport applications Mr. Thai
said he was a cook, while on others he claimed to be a waiter.


9. Residences: On his six passport applications, Mr. Thai
claimed six different addresses. On the five immigrant
petitions he filed, he claimed five other addresses, none of
which matched any of the addresses on his passport applications.
The addresses were primarily in California, Seattle, and Queens,
New York.


10. Personal History: Mr. Thai's family background is difficult
to determine with any degree of certainty, as he has made
contradictory claims regarding his marital status and parents on
various official documents. Some examples:

-- Mr. Thai first stated on his refugee camp biodata form that
his father had been born in Vietnam and had died there in 1972.
On subsequent passport applications, he twice listed his
father's place of birth as China, and twice as Vietnam; on one
application, he wrote that his father was a U.S. citizen.
(There is no record of his father in either IVO or PIERS.)

-- Similarly, Mr. Thai's refugee camp biodata form showed his
mother's place of birth as Vietnam, but on later passport
applications he showed it sometimes as China (twice) and
sometimes as Vietnam (twice).

-- Mr. Thai claimed on his 18Jan01 passport application that he
had "never married", though other evidence suggests that he had
been married at least two times prior to that filing.


11. Comment: Although the USG devotes large amounts of
resources to fighting TIP, Mr. Thai's case illustrates the
unfortunate truth that Amcits involved in alien trafficking or
visa fraud face few barriers to obtaining U.S. passports to
facilitate their illegal enterprises. Given Mr. Thai's
extensive record of involvement in the trafficking of Vietnamese
and Chinese nationals, it would appear to be in the USG's
interest to avoid facilitating his overseas travel. Given the
lack of any legal basis upon which to deny him a passport or
restrict his travel, however, and the strong likelihood that we
will never have such authority, posts and domestic passport
offices are left in the unfortunate position of having to help
Mr. Thai obtain passports which history suggests will almost
certainly be used to facilitate illegal activities. Post notes
the success of the HHS-State effort to deny passports to
"deadbeat dads", and recommends consideration of some similar
legal mechanism to prevent or limit the ability of known
traffickers in persons to abuse their U.S. passports. End
comment.
CHERN