Commentary by Mark Wahl, CISA
Wikidentity provider? (20080903)
From US Court of Appeals,
...The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) initially dismissed her administrative appeal, concluding that Badasa had failed to establish her identity. Badasa moved to reopen her case based on a travel document recently acquired from the Ethiopian government, known as a laissez-passer, which Badasa alleged would establish her identity. Noting that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) concurred in the motion, the BIA reopened the case and remanded it to the [Immigration Judge] for further consideration... On remand, the DHS submitted several documents designed to explain the purpose of a laissez-passer, and argued that the document did not establish identity and nationality, but rather was "simply the granting of the authorization for an alien to travel to or from that country." After considering evidence presented by the parties, including information submitted by the DHS from an Internet website known as Wikipedia, the [Immigration Judge] found that the laissez-passer is a single-use, one-way travel document that is issued based on information provided by the applicant...