United States Deports
200 Costa Ricans
The United States
immigration service has
deported some 200 Costa
Ricans over the last
several months mainly
for immigration fraud,
having fake stamps of
travel to and from Costa
Rica and the United
States.
Supposedly Costa Ricans
paid immigration
officials at the Juan
Santamaría (San José)
airport to stamp their
passports with leaving
and entering Costa Rica,
attempting to fool US
immigration officials
that they had returned
to Costa Rican within
the six months maximum
stay in the US, so that
they can then again
travel without
hindrances.
The director of the the
Costa Rican immigration
service, Mario Zamora,
said that 22 of his
officials will be
investigated in the
case.
The Costa Ricans
deported will not be
allowed entry into the
United States again for
a period of between five
and ten years.
Director Zamora said
that the US immigration
service has a list of a
number of other Costa
Ricans who may have
committed the same fraud
and the number could top
a 1.000 Costa Ricans.
A number of officials
being investigated claim
that their "seals" were
copied and are involved
in irregularities that
they did not commit.
One immigration official
who spoke to the daily
La Nación, Julia Sancho
Umaña, who has worked
with immigration for the
last 30 years, and one
of the officials being
investigated, said she
has copies of stamps in
passports that were
never stamped by her and
the whole situation is
an injustice, assuring
never to have provided
false stamps in
passports.
Each stamp used to stamp
passports for entry and
exit to and from Costa
Rica by immigration
officials has the
person's name on it and
can easily be copied if
misplaced or lost.
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