{"id":24401,"date":"2021-04-14T18:54:15","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T22:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=24401"},"modified":"2021-04-14T18:54:16","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T22:54:16","slug":"fraud-case-key-questions-raised-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2021\/04\/14\/fraud-case-key-questions-raised-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Unpacking an Asylum Fraud Case That Contains So Much Absurdity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A Nigerian man who entered\nthis country on a stolen British passport, fraudulently obtained U.S.\ncitizenship and ended up working as a federal immigration officer has, finally,\nlanded in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-cdca\/pr\/federal-immigration-official-originally-nigeria-charged-illegally-obtaining-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Modestus Nwagubwu Ifemembi<\/a>, 48, faces a single count of \u201cunlawfully procuring U.S. citizenship.\u201d But this bizarre, two-decade-long chain of events raises countless intriguing questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, the background. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ifemembi entered the U.S. on\na France-to-Chicago flight in 2000. After immigration agents in the Windy City\ndetained Ifemembi \u2013 who admitted to passport fraud \u2013 he was granted asylum.\nApproval was based on false claims that his name was \u201cKarlos Mourfy\u201d and a\nnative of Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ifemembi\/Mourfy went on to\nattend the University of California, Berkeley and obtain a law degree from the\nUniversity of Oregon. In 2010, \u201cKarlos Mourfy\u201d applied for U.S. citizenship as\nIfemembi. It was granted in 2011. In 2013, he was hired by U.S. Citizenship and\nImmigration Services (USCIS), where he worked as an immigration officer for\nseven years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Examining this twisted trail of deceit and bureaucratic fumbles, <a href=\"https:\/\/cis.org\/Law\/Fraudulent-Asylee-Became-USCIS-Adjudicator\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Robert Law<\/a> of the Center for Immigration Studies wondered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>How did\nimmigration screeners fail to discover that Ifemembi was from Nigeria and not\nSierra Leone when he applied for asylum?<\/li><li>How did\nUSCIS fail to discover the fraud when he subsequently applied to adjust status?<\/li><li>How did\nUSCIS (under&nbsp;then-Director Alejandro Mayorkas) fail to discover the fraud\nwhen it approved Ifemembi\u2019s naturalization?<\/li><li>How did\nIfemembi pass background and security checks when USCIS hired him, again during\nMayorkas&#8217; tenure?<\/li><li>What was\nIfemembi&#8217;s portfolio as an immigration officer? Will all of his casework be\nreviewed?<\/li><li>Given\nMayorkas&#8217; &#8220;get to yes&#8221; approach to immigration benefits, did the\nagency\u2019s political leadership overrule any red flags identified by\nadjudicators?<\/li><li>As\nDepartment of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, will Mayorkas ensure that\nIfemembi is denaturalized promptly upon conviction?<\/li><li>Will the\nBiden administration deport Ifemembi?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of these institutional issues\nare beyond the scope of Ifemembi\u2019s upcoming trial, but they are all pertinent\nquestions that demand straight answers and appropriate action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Nigerian man who entered this country on a stolen British passport, fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship and ended up working as a federal immigration officer has, finally, landed in court. Modestus Nwagubwu Ifemembi, 48, faces a single count of \u201cunlawfully procuring U.S. citizenship.\u201d But this bizarre, two-decade-long chain of events raises countless intriguing questions. First,<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2021\/04\/14\/fraud-case-key-questions-raised-immigrationreform-com\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[5246],"tags":[1524,367,115,1298],"yst_prominent_words":[3381,5137,1978,11259,11255,4515,11260,11253,11252,2697,11258,1963,11254,11257,10467,2111,11256,1939,2478,1947],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24402,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24401\/revisions\/24402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24401"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}