Deported migrant who '60 Minutes' painted as sympathetic family man claimed he was gay on asylum application
Malian national Moussa Diawara, featured sympathetically on '60 Minutes' as a family man, had claimed in his 2009 asylum application that he was gay and feared persecution in his home country.
The CBS News segment focused on Diawara and his family, speaking to his wife, 16-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. However, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has disputed this portrayal, highlighting that Diawara had claimed to be homosexual on his asylum application to avoid deportation to Mali.
Fox News exclusively obtained Diawara's 2009 asylum application in which he declared that he needed to remain in America because he was a gay man who could be killed if sent back to his native country.
Asylum application details
In his application, Diawara wrote: 'My asylum application is based upon ground of well founded past persecution and an undisputable fear of life threatening to my person if I were to return to my country Mali. In fact I had experienced extreme punishment and persecution based on the ground of my sexual orientation.'
He further explained that since coming to the USA, he had 'the possibilities to express my feelings to men without any embarrassment no reserve,' claiming his tribal group had reported his sexual orientation to his family back home because 'such behavior is unwelcome in my society.'
My life is hence worth threatened if I have to go back to my country because I could be executed either by the Islamic group or the community.
ICE response
ICE posted on X: 'The '60 Minutes' sob story tonight highlighted an illegal alien and his wife and two children. One problem. The illegal alien claimed he was a HOMOSEXUAL in order to try and dodge deportation to Mali.'
DHS General Counsel James Percival, interviewed in the '60 Minutes' segment, took to social media after it aired, saying the newsmagazine made Diawara the 'poster child for what it claims are wrongful deportations.'
His claimed reason for fearing Mali was that he is 'gay,' just in case you're wondering how bad the immigration fraud problem is.
Media controversy
The segment put a spotlight on Diawara, who was living in the U.S. for 25 years without a criminal record, overstaying his tourist visa and getting nabbed by ICE and sent to Ghana, which ultimately sent him to his home country of Mali. According to the report, Diawara has since fled Mali to an undisclosed African country.
'60 Minutes' noted that a U.S. judge said Diawara could be persecuted in Mali, pointing to fears over converting to Christianity. However, the show did not mention that Diawara's application contradicted his family man narrative and the reason why he claimed he couldn't return to his native country was because of his sexual orientation.
During the segment, Percival noted that there is 'a lot of fraud' in the immigration system and many 'fear claims' are untrue. A '60 Minutes' insider defended the integrity of the report, pointing to how Diawara's claim that 'part of the reason he didn't feel safe' was for religious reasons made the broadcast.
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