The venerable 60 Minutes dedicated a recent segment to the deportation of Moussa Diawara, a 57-year-old man from Mali. For more than 25 years, Diawara had reportedly lived in the Houston area, married a U.S. citizen, raised two children, and worked as an Uber driver. The entire presentation was meticulously crafted to evoke sympathy, complete with Diawara's family trotted out for maximum emotional impact, a familiar tactic from the legacy media playbook.
The 60 Minutes report outlined Diawara's journey: entering on a tourist visa, overstaying his welcome, and then, in 2012, securing a crucial immigration judge's ruling. This ruling granted him "withholding of removal" from Mali, based on claims he would face persecution if returned. The implied tragedy was palpable.
But as often happens when the corporate media tries to sculpt a narrative without all the facts, the story began to unravel. Enter James Percival, General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who swiftly exposed the glaring inconsistencies at the heart of the 60 Minutes piece.
The 60 Minutes report stated that ICE detained Diawara on July 11 and subsequently deported him to Ghana, from where he was sent to Mali. His alleged fear of persecution, the report claimed, stemmed from his conversion to Christianity in Muslim-majority Mali. A tragic tale, indeed.
However, Percival pulled Diawara's immigration file and unearthed a stunning contradiction: Diawara had previously claimed he couldn't be sent to Mali because he was "gay." This revelation, featuring a man with a wife and two children, highlights the deep-seated fraud that plagues America's immigration system, a system often exploited by those seeking to game the rules.
This tactic, using claims of sexual orientation for asylum, is hardly new. A recent BBC undercover investigation uncovered a sophisticated network of UK legal advisors coaching migrants, particularly from Pakistan and Bangladesh, to falsely claim they were "gay" to secure asylum. These coaches even provided detailed instructions on fabricating evidence like staged photographs and fake medical reports, leading to arrests and official action.
In the United States, sexual orientation is a recognized basis for asylum. This loophole, intended for legitimate cases, has been cynically exploited, with federal authorities prosecuting lawyers and preparers for coaching clients to concoct bogus persecution claims, including those based on false LGBT status.
DHS confirmed that Ghana provided diplomatic assurances for Diawara's safety. 60 Minutes, buried deep within its own sympathetic portrayal, grudgingly admitted that the department had questioned the credibility of Diawara's fear claim. And, crucially, the program itself stated, "the U.S. had a right to deport him, but not to Mali." Yet, he was initially sent to Ghana, not directly to Mali. It seems 60 Minutes was so committed to its predetermined narrative that it barely paused to check the basic facts, let alone the internal contradictions of its subject's story.
In their haste to generate a tear-jerking "human interest" story, 60 Minutes deliberately overlooked the undeniable fraudulent core of Diawara's asylum claim. They prioritized a politically convenient narrative over factual accuracy, and in doing so, got caught red-handed peddling a false story that imploded the moment sunlight hit it. This isn't journalism; it's activism, further eroding public trust in what was once considered a credible news source.
