CAMEROON COUNSELOR'S FAMILY: VISA AND STATUS

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000357 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE FOR IO/UNP - S. EDMONDSON, L/DL, AF/C E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OFDP PREL KREC CM SUBJECT: CAMEROON COUNSELOR'S FAMILY: VISA AND STATUS ISSUES IN AFTERMNATH OF WIFE'S ARREST FOR FELONY INJURY TO A MINOR CHILD REF: 2007 USUN NEW YORK 00316 ¶1. (U) Entire text is sensitive but unclassified. ¶2. (U) USUN seeks Department's views in this complicated case. 3.(SBU) USUN met April 15 with Cameroon Mission Counselor Nganje Kinge Monono and his wife, Priscilla Jemea Misodi Nganje Kinge, who seek USUN assistance. Reftel describes in detail the case of diplomat Monono, who sent his wife Priscilla and children to live in Frisco, Texas. He refused to move them back to NY as demanded by USUN. The wife was picked up for beating two of her step-children. She claimed diplomatic immunity, but USUN confirmed that she lost her immunity and her legal status in the U.S. because she failed to reside with her husband, even after USUN warned the family and the Cameroon Mission of the requirement that she do so. Priscilla turned herself over to the police in Texas. She was arrested and charged with assault, bodily injury and family violence with a bond set at 10,000 USD. She was released on bail arranged by her husband. ¶4. (SBU) The entire family--father, mother, and five children (the three oldest are his from a prior marriage) returned to Cameroon. The diplomat Monono and two youngest children (born to Monono and Priscilla) then returned to the US on G-1 visas. The father now resides in Jersey City, NJ and works at the Cameroon Mission. The other three children are in Cameroon, hoping to return to the US on G-1 visas. The wife returned on a B-1 visa to face charges. She was sentenced to 80 hours of community service (60 completed),anger management classes (completed),a batterer's workshop for 24 weeks (12 weeks completed),and an additonal year of probation (until mid-2009). She can complete the community service in a week, the batterer's workshop in 12 weeks, and would like then to return to New Jersey to live with her husband for the duration of her probation, if Texas so permits. The two children in the U.S. on G-1 visas reside with her in Texas. ¶5. (SBU) The wife's authorized stay in B-1 status expired on April 11. The two children who entered the US on G-1 visas are probably out of status because they are not residing with the father in New Jersey, but with their mother in Texas. The mother, temporarily in New York, is going to Texas on Saturday and will inform her probation officer that her authorized stay has expired and she appears to be out of status (her work authorization also expired). She also faces a July 15 court date in Texas for not respecting the bail bond, because she failed to appear for her court date, allegedly because she could not get a visa from Amembassy Yaounde in time. ¶6. (SBU) The diplomat Monono would like his wife's probation to be transferred to New Jersey after she finishes her community service and batterer's workshop. He would live in New Jersey with his wife and the two children presently in the US on G-1 visas. If probation is transferred from Texas to New Jersey, the wife would travel once a month to Texas to check in with her probation officer until she finishes her probation. She recognizes that she would have to leave the US to apply for a G-1 visa. Once they are living in New Jersey togather, and their visa status and legal status are settled, they would like the other three children to be issued G-1 visas in Yaounde so that they may join their parents. Khalilzad