This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

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