Extradite Rep. Santos to Brazil?

By David North on January 20, 2023

Here’s an idea about what to do with fabulist Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.).

Rather than seek an American solution to the immigration and fraud problems he is alleged to have created, an alternative may lay in the courts of Brazil, where he is wanted on criminal charges for theft.

President Biden could ask his friend, President Lula, to request that Santos, under a U.S.-Brazil treaty, be extradited to Brazil. Once the inevitable court challenges here have been set aside he would be escorted to a plane headed for that nation.

This would not remove Santos from the House, as Democrats and Long Island Republicans both want, but it would keep him off the House floor for a while, perhaps for the rest of his term.

Meanwhile, there have been three immigration-related developments in recent days regarding Santos, whose multiple problems with the law and the truth we examined earlier.

The most recent and most solid one relates to his mother, and his claim that she was in the World Trade Center on 9/11. The New York Times on January 19 reported that DHS files (secured through a FOIA request) showed that she left the U.S. for Brazil in June 1999 (when little George was 11) and stayed there until she filed for a visa to come to the U.S. in 2003. Meaning that she was out of the country on 9/11. Was George with her at the time? Or back in the States with his father?

The Times story goes on to say: “Ms. Devolder [his mother] said that she had been unable to return to the United States since 1999 because her green card had been stolen in Brazil.”

Does the physical loss of a green card bar one from admission to the U.S.? Maybe it does, or maybe Santos’ mother thought it did.

The second item on today’s list also relates to the Times' speculation, as cited above, that the marriage of Santos (an openly gay male) to a woman (Uadla Santos Vieira) had immigration implications. Those would be either that he married her to get a green card, or vice-versa. The two were married on August 2, 2012, in Manhattan; they were divorced seven years later.

A New York area journalist said it was far more likely that she was the recipient of the marriage-related immigration benefit than he was; he said that she appears to be relatively young, had a baby recently (presumably thanks to a different male), and has never voted. That she has never voted argues that she was not a citizen in 2012 (and could not help Santos get a green card) and may not be one now.

It would help if someone interviewed her, and that may be in process.

Marrying someone to circumvent the immigration laws is a fraud, but one hard to prove. Further, there is a statute of limitations in these cases of five years, so using the questionable marriage cannot lead to a fruitful court case in this instance.

One more item about her. The White Pages listing for 66 Delaware St., Elizabethport, N.J., and a deed filed with Union County, N.J., show that a single-family house there was purchased by Uadla Santos for $750,000 on June 17, 2022, months before the election of that year. Elizabethport is just across the Arthur Kill (a body of water) from Staten Island. It is a neighborhood within the City of Elizabeth.

Uadla is an unusual name. I have seen nothing in the papers or online about this. It may have nothing to do with the congressman.

The third bit of Santos news is the least important, and does not relate to his ability to serve in the House. That is that he is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Brazil. This is an unusual status for a member of Congress, but is not unknown. The voters of Pennsylvania, for example, had their choice in November between a dual citizen of Turkey and the U.S., Dr. Oz, and his Democratic opponent, John Fetterman; they chose Fetterman. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was a dual citizen (Canada) until he gave that up in 2014.

A child of Brazilian parents, even though born in another nation, may seek Brazilian citizenship after living in Brazil for a year or more. It would appear from the Times reporting that he may well meet that requirement.

Topics: Politics