Wave of Hungarians deported from the US

Last month Ms. Regina Zsigmond (42) and her husband Mr. László Kovács (45) were captured by US authorities at the Canadian border with their 2-year-old boy, Levente. The boy was separated from the parents and is currently being held in a Bronx shelter.

The family entered the United States illegally and remain in federal custody. Their 2-year-old is in the shelter. “The problem is they cannot communicate with this kid in his foreign language,” said a family friend. Levente speaks only Hungarian.

Ms. Regina Zsigmond (42) and her husband Mr. László Kovács (45) were captured by US authorities at the Canadian border. Their 2-year-old boy, Levente was separated from the family.

Last year 80-year old Sándor Párdi was deported to Budapest after living in the US for over six decades. Párdi is a convicted sex offender; he was unable to get US citizenship during his long tenure in the US.

80-year old Mr. Sándor Párdi is a registered and convicted sex offender in the US. He was deported to Budapest.

These two examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Hungarian diplomats are shy about information related to arrests and deportations of Hungarians in the US. We don’t know how many Hungarians are in US jails or have been deported. While there are no published estimates about the number of Hungarians living illegally in the US, my guess is that at least 10,000 have entered the US with Hungarian passports. Some of them decades ago.

The majority have entered in the last five years. Many have nothing to do with Hungary since they never lived there; they obtained passports via the Orbán government’s 2010 fast-tracked dual-citizenship program and used the US Visa Waiver system to enter the US.

Hungarian passports can also be purchased and it is suspected that government officials and diplomats benefit financially from the illegal passport trade. US authorities are now considering scrapping visa waivers for Hungarians after uncovering a massive fraud scheme that has let non-Hungarians enter the US under false identities. (Read more here.)

Recently Slovak authorities arrested a Ukrainian terrorist (!) in Kosice, Slovakia with a Hungarian passport. Hungarian passports are easy to obtain and have become popular among criminals and terrorist gangs in Eastern-Europe. (Read Hungarian language article here.)

Hungarian diplomats are in panic and Ambassador Szabó in Washington now wants to get the US “Hungarian Diaspora” involved. I’d stay away from Hungary’s murky passport business which badly needs some transparency.

The root of the problem is the systematic corruption of politicians and diplomats and the ill-conceived 2010 fast-tracked dual-citizenship law. The “father” of the program, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén has acknowledged that at least 5,000 criminals have gotten access to Hungarian passports. According to Mr. Semjén this is an acceptable “margin of error.” (Read Hungarian language article here.)

US authorities see it differently. It is becoming evident that the Hungarians provided passport access to thousands of “bad guys” and now US taxpayers will have to foot the bill.

At the recent EU summit Prime Minister Orbán described migration as a dangerous “invasion” that “should be stopped.” Orbán said that the people want two things: No more migrants and “those who are in, should be sent back.”

President Trump agrees with him. He is sending more and more Hungarians back to Budapest.

György Lázár

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