Washington, Sep 30 (IANS) : Two Chinese nationals have been charged with using US passports belonging to real American citizens to try to enter the United States from Mexico, in a case federal prosecutors said raises serious national security concerns.
Jin Fu Wei, 44, of Guangxi Province in China, and Xiaodan Lei, 47, of Henan Province, were charged with misuse of a passport, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday.
The two had been in federal custody since their arrest last month and were expected to make their initial appearances in US District Court in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
“Thanks to the diligent work of customs officers, two Chinese nationals attempting to use U.S. passports belonging to real American citizens were detained and now face federal felony charges,” First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said.
“This case is not only a criminal matter. It also raises serious national security concerns when foreign citizens are able to enter the United States under false identities. We have a right to know exactly who is crossing our borders and what their intentions are,” he said.
According to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, Wei and Lei travelled on August 26 aboard a commercial flight from Los Cabos International Airport in Mexico to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California.
When they arrived at the US port of entry, prosecutors allege that both presented US passports belonging to actual American citizens to Customs and Border Protection officers.
The attempt was detected after biometric checks.
Customs officers determined that biometric identifiers associated with the passports did not match Wei and Lei, according to the Justice Department.
Facial recognition scans of the two Chinese nationals did not match the scanned US passports they had presented.
Authorities also discovered another discrepancy.
Neither Wei nor Lei’s name appeared on the flight manifest, the official document identifying the passengers and crew aboard an aircraft.
Law enforcement officers then detained the two for further review of their admissibility into the United States.
Investigators also recovered documents from Wei that prosecutors say further indicated the American identity he presented was not his own.
Wei was carrying a Chinese credit card and a Chinese bank card bearing his own name rather than the name of the person whose US passport he allegedly used.
He also possessed an expired Texas driver’s licence belonging to the legitimate holder of the US passport, according to the Justice Department.
