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SALT LAKE CITY — Immigration officials are trying to figure out how a green card ended up going to the wrong person, even after the Department of Homeland Security was warned of a potential problem.
Pieces of mail started arriving in Lisa Moen's mailbox at her Salt Lake City home, all addressed to someone named "Juan." Many of them appeared to be bills, but others made her suspicious.
"My antenna went up a little bit when I saw Homeland Security on the envelope," said Moen.
Turns out, letter after letter was coming from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), asking someone by the name of Juan to go to their Salt Lake City office and provide some information and answer a few questions in order to renew his green card. It had apparently expired.
Since Lisa Moen is not Juan, she called the immigration office to let them know either someone was fraudulently using her address or there had been a mistake.
"They didn't really know who to send me to," said Moen. "They transferred me about three or four times."
They didn't really know who to send me to. They transferred me about three or four times.
–Lisa Moen, receiver of wrong Green Card
Moen said she got even more of a runaround when she called back later to find out how she ended up with someone's green card.
"Their answer was, 'We don't know what to do. We've never heard of this before. We don't know how to handle it. We don't know who to send you to,’ ” said Moen.
U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz has dealt with immigration issues since running for office. When it comes to the Department of Homeland Security, he's voiced his concerns many times.
"It's not an isolated case," said Chaffetz. "That's the problem."
More than 11 million illegal immigrants are in the country right now. If green cards go floating off into the wrong hands, Chaffetz said it points to a much bigger problem.
"It's as if they are just pushing everybody through as fast as they can," said Chaffetz. "No background checks, let's not visit them in person, next, next, next."
The KSL Investigators spent weeks trying to get answers from immigration officials. Hesitant to talk, the Department of Homeland Security finally agreed to answer a few questions over the phone.
While most of their answers were vague, it became evident, even after multiple conversations with Lisa Moen, they still had no idea of the whereabouts of the green card.
"We do understand that she was able to return the document, is that correct?" asked Tim Counts, a spokesman for USCIS.
"No," answered KSL Investigator Mike Headrick.
"She was not able to return it?" asked Counts.
"She did not return it," said Headrick.
"Oh, where's the document now?" asked Counts.
"We have the document," answered Headrick.
"I see," said Counts.
Counts said the Department of Homeland Security mails out 1.1 million green cards every year. Of that 1.1 million, he said a tiny percentage, 0.0001 percent, come back as undeliverable. That's about 110 a year. But what about the ones that never come back?
"It is extraordinarily rare and likely unique that something like this has ever happened before or would ever happen again," said Counts.
But a quick search online reveals a different story. Looking at complaints, it has happened many times before.
In Juan's case, Homeland Security spent the better part of eight months mailing sensitive documents to the wrong address. It took the KSL Investigators the better part of eight minutes to track down the right address.
Juan wasn't home, but his son-in-law was. He said Juan is still waiting on a new green card. While he didn't talk much concerning Juan's history, KSL dug up some court records that raise a few questions.
Within a five-year period, Juan had multiple citations. He was charged with three DUIs and convicted on two of them. Through it all, he maintained his green card.
"Would that concern the Department of Homeland Security, if you have someone here from out of the country with multiple DUIs?" asked Headrick.
"We are concerned that the right person gets the right benefit that they are qualified for and we ensure that happens," answered Counts.
But ask Chaffetz what he thinks, and he has a very different answer.
"That cannot stand. That is just outrageous," said Chaffetz. "That alone, this person should have been deported and kicked out of the country and the system should have reflected that, not sent out a green card."
