Officials stop illegal alien
Citizen of India, trapped in Canada, claimed to be from Pittsfield
By Dick Lindsay
Updated: 07/14/2009 05:46:47 AM EDT



PITTSFIELD -- City officials were instrumental in helping federal authorities prevent a citizen of India claiming to be a native of Pittsfield from illegally re-entering the United States.
Balvinder Singh, who had been living in America under an expired temporary visa since 2001, was visiting a girlfriend in Toronto, but failed to return before June 1, when a passport became a requirement to enter the U.S. from Canada, according to federal officials.

So Singh contacted the Pittsfield City Clerk's office in early June saying he had to return to the U.S. due to a medical condition and needed a copy of his long-form birth certificate in order to get a passport. Singh gave the office staff a false name and a birthdate of Oct. 24, 1967, but City Hall officials found no such birth record existed, according to City Clerk Linda M. Tyer.

Singh then communicated with the office several more times claiming he had proof he was born in Pittsfield, including a copy of a birth record, which he faxed to City Hall.

"He was very persistent with plenty of details," said Tyer. "He was very forthcoming, but very friendly."

However, Tyer said some of the information on that birth record proved to be erroneous, such as listing the birth hospital as Berkshire Medical Center. In 1967, BMC was known as Pittsfield General Hospital.

Federal investigators later learned Singh had he bought a copy of the birth document in Atlantic City, N.J., for $3,000.
Tyer suspected "it was a copy of a legitimate birth certificate" from Pittsfield that Singh altered for his own use.

Singh even hired a local attorney to help his cause, but Tyer and her staff continued to tell the lawyer and his client that "no birth record existed and that one would not be produced for [Singh]."

Then on June 29, an investigator with the State Department informed Tyer that Singh had already given the U.S. Consulate in Toronto documents claiming he was a natural U.S. citizen so he could get a passport. As part of their investigation, consulate officials interviewed Singh at length, and he eventually confessed he was not an America citizen. He was taken into custody by the Canadian Border Services and authorities expect he'll be deported back to India.

Tyer praised her assistants, Doreen Jamborees, Mali Windrow-Carlotto and Cori Hasty, for their handling of the matter.

To reach Dick Lindsay:
rlindsay@berkshireeagle.com,


http://www.berkshireeagle.com/local/ci_ ... source=rss