On July 15th, 2025, officers were dispatched to a TSA checkpoint at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport after receiving a report of a passenger presenting a fraudulent passport. >> Who's the passenger? He said he's been telling you this whole story now he's like he flies all the time but now he say oh now I'm just going to arrivals now. You just going what? Now he's going to arrivals to pick up somebody. He's like a but he's like I know I travel all the time with that passport. Mhm but now he's like getting a little nervous. There's nothing over here. And you saying this one shouldn't be it over here. Like shouldn't be there? No I don't We don't even know what is that. >> It's like the the little address that's circled in the black on that second page. It's the same that's on every that that's on every page. Yeah it's it doesn't have nothing physically >> Hey get back over here. Come here. Under 49 USC section 44,901 TSA holds broad federal authority to screen travel documents at checkpoints. When the CAT machine returned no data, that triggered a lawful multi-step escalation to law enforcement precisely as protocol requires. Under Terry versus Ohio 392 US 1 1968 a lawful investigative detention requires reasonable articulable suspicion not probable cause. Here that threshold is met on multiple independent grounds. Missing biometric page, UV anomalies, mismatched serial numbers, Vietnamese visa inserts in a purported US passport no boarding pass and a story that changed twice. Get over here. And I'm not done with you. Go. Go over here. Is there any if would there be any reason for that to be fake? No. Do you have your ID on you? They've already asked me all these questions. Well, I'm asking you different questions. Can I get your ID? Uh I don't have a physical ID, sir. You don't have a physical ID? No. Do you have a state Do you have a real ID? Where are you from? Huh? Where are you from? Plano. Plano? Did you have a Texas ID ever? Uh I don't drive anymore. I'm not sure. Okay. What's your first name? Zeng. How do you spell that? Z E N. Z E N? I don't have your passport right now cuz you walked away. Last name? Yang. Y A N G? Yes, sir. Okay. Huh? I said a lot of cops can't spell that so I appreciate your understanding. Yeah yeah Yang I mean that's pretty easy. No they can't even spell Smith. Really? No. Bigger Ford uh other bigger unit can you bring over his passport? They basically told me I need to get a new passport. Okay. [snorts] What did they What did they say? Uh it's got a missing page. You're missing a page? Okay. Where you flying to? I'm not. You're not flying? I'm going to my wife Let me go to uh D for arrivals and uh and then American Airlines told me that I can just fly in through here and I realized that was probably a bad idea. I shouldn't have taken the But do you have a boarding pass or anything? For a flight to catch anywhere? Why would I have a I'm just wondering. I got an American Airlines tag. You got a what? >> I got a tag from American Airlines. Tag. What's the tag for? I don't know. They gave it to They did? At A A did yeah. That's my ID but You see my ID? My ID. That's your ID? Well that's the only ID I have. Where do you live at right now? Plano. Pla oh sorry. Huh? You guys need a passport? Can I have your uh name so I can make a report? Did he show you guys a boarding pass? No. Like I said he because we have this machine is called CAT machine. We only need the passport. We need the ID. So when we requested ID he was so persistent that but he was like I fly all the time. I don't know what's going on with this. What I was like okay let me ask more questions more questions. So but where's your boarding pass to see where was he going? And then he's like well I don't have a boarding pass. So why you don't have a boarding pass? He goes oh um I'm just going to arrivals. So now it changes like that. From flying all the time to I'm going to arrivals. So about that. Yeah. So that's why we first we didn't request a boarding pass because only we needed the passport to scan it and then it would pull all his information from his >> didn't scan? Uh because there's no page. [laughter] Oh it's missing >> There's no page. I have it's missing the Do you know the front page where your picture is? It's completely gone. Oh it's not there at all. >> It's not there. So let me show you I don't know you guys need to look at it. Is that it right there? Yeah see it's missing a page. It's missing the picture with his face on it. Okay. Um It has like a visa over there. >> never seen the address right in the middle. That could be me but >> if you stick it under the UV That's that's not on it. >> That's no marking on it. That's that's not That's on our side. >> We don't recognize that and then he and the only thing he has is this. What's that? Like a visa from uh >> But the numbers on here don't match the one on the back. Okay. So this is the only thing that uh I don't know if this is his real name or somebody else's passport or the name >> lighting that you put in there that's not supposed to be there, right? I mean it's a piece of a ID. >> one is a visa yes. And that's from Vietnam. Okay. But like this marks That's not on it. >> No that's not part of the US passport over here. It don't Okay. It should be nothing. Should be nothing. And then this one yeah this one should not be Shouldn't be highlighting anything at all. Nothing highlighted over here. >> Do you guys have a normal one I can look at? If I can get another passport I will be grateful. Got it. So same page. Come on Elzie. No marking. No marking. Look right here at the scanner please. >> page mhm. Shouldn't be that marking over there. This is a normal passport. This is what we see. Okay. And he's missing this page. >> And this is a US passport. >> US Correct. Same exact one. Sir sir So he presents any of this up here said he was he flies out all all the time but didn't present a boarding pass to him but presented this cuz somebody told me he had to take a skylink over to C. But It's missing the first no. He's saying no. But when you start questioning more and more he started walking away so I couldn't say. But he is missing the first page. Yeah. But when you put it underneath the scanner it has writing all through down here. And we paired up against another one a normal passport and it didn't have any writing. That's why I called you here. >> [laughter] >> Does he have another wet form of identification with him? Just what I ran from the mom and the name and date of birth. So he said he was going to pick up his friend which is his uncle. Doesn't have any flight information. Hey sir my ride is here. I'm going to miss it and all that. Under 18 USC section 1543 it is a federal felony to use any passport knowing it to be altered or forged. Under Texas Penal Code section 37.10 presenting a governmental record with knowledge of its falsity constitutes tampering a state jail felony at minimum potentially a third degree felony depending on intent. Both statutes are independently satisfied by the act of presenting this document at the checkpoint. The officer's declaration "You're detained right now." marks a critical Fifth Amendment threshold. Under Miranda versus Arizona 384 US 436 1966 custodial interrogation requires prior rights advisement. Questioning about the passport's origin and the girlfriend's role continued for over 2 minutes after this declaration without documented Miranda warnings. Statements made during that window face suppression risk. >> You're detained right now. Okay. Do you have another form of identification on you? I've been asked that several times and TSA just took me a photo. What? TSA just took me a photo and my Sorry one second here. Is it fake? You're Vietnamese? No I have my wife is. I married her in 2013. You can tell her my whole story. This is your passport? And I'm going to find out your real name from from the previous time, right? What's your name? Yang. Zeng Yang. So this is >> So this is not your passport. No, that's my passport. Those are Vietnamese visas. I don't even see where's the picture and stuff. So it's missing. It's ripped out. You obviously haven't been to Vietnam. I can tell from that. He's presenting it as a real passport to try and get through checkpoint. Yeah. And then trying it on their ID. The pages [music] have writing all the way down different languages But he got pulled in over customs. It doesn't matter. Is there any other than the first page? There's no way to determine TSA already scanned my barcode. All right. So the first page is ripped out of this thing and then it's got What's up? This is Vietnamese and he's supposed to be Chinese and this is not his name. So Is there a way to determine by scanning this barcode Call customs. And see if that barcode shows up with anything. Can you call them and see if you can figure out who this >> their number? Uh give me a second. We can check. Okay. That's who it returns to. So it's not No. How did you verify that? This number right here. It's written on there. That's their That's a passport. Yeah. And they're not able to get anything off this number. And you're saying these other pages have writings and writings in them. I need you to put everything down, okay? Huh? Take the shoulder bag off. Take everything off. Set that down. Can I stand up right now? Just stand up. All right. So you are being You are under arrest for tampering with government records. So basically fraud. It's funny. You guys arrest anyone for fraud? I must be the first one ever. No. No. It happens. >> There's a lot of different types of fraud. It happens. When I present something I go to a nice state jail going in there with a We'll have to figure out what the exact what the charge is. It's tampering with government records. We just don't know the level. It's more than likely felony. So. You ever thought my girlfriend did it? Huh? You ever thought my girlfriend did it? You're the one that presented it at The subject's attempt to deflect "My girlfriend did it." does not constitute a legal defense under section 37.10. The statute criminalizes the act of knowing presentation, not the act of document creation. The subject was the one who walked to the checkpoint and tendered the document as valid identification. That single act completes the offense. He was charged under Texas Penal Code section 32.51, fraudulent use or possession of identifying information, and issued a criminal trespass warning from the airport. Whether parallel federal prosecution under 18 USC section 1543 was pursued by the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas remains unknown at the time of this analysis. TSA A minus. Systematic escalation and accurate officer briefing. Minor concern. The missing bio page should have triggered immediate rejection at first contact. Three takeaways from this encounter. Let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic that you would like us to discuss in the comments below. Thank you for watching. I want to step out, okay? Try to make this Yeah, let me go move this for you, okay? All right, go ahead. It's my deal, right? There you go. It's my rich. I haven't been to DFW jail. It's going to be the first time. They're going to like me here. It's a nice jail. They'll take care of you. They They have food. You like food, right? Yeah. Yeah? Okay.