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The Senate spent most of the day questioning Therese Chavarria, a retired Immigration Officer who served 30 years with the Department. Most of it was internal Department business, but there was a major reveal from her exchange with the Senate.

Chavarria explained that she once fooled the system into accepting a picture of someone who did not appear to take the photograph in person. Her method was basic, she simply printed out a blown up image on a letter sized typing sheet, taped it to the back of the chair that the person would have sat to take the picture, and “clickâ€￾, the machine’s camera was took a picture of that picture - and accepted it like the real thing. 

It’s relevant because there’s been so much back and forth about how Citizen Kim’s picture got into the system when he never set foot in Belize. Witnesses have gone before the Senate to swear that it’s impossible to get someone’s picture on the system unless that person appears at the Immigration office personally.

But Chavarria debunked that completely when she explained her simple but effective method:

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"We are concerned about how a person's image such as in the Wong Hong Kim passport could appear in the system when it is obvious that he was not here - but the impression we were given is that this is not possible. Are you aware that this was done in a legitimate instance?"

Therese Chavarria - Retired Immigration officer
"Yes I'm aware."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"You recall the instance?"

Therese Chavarria
"Yes I recall at least - I did at least 2 or 3 passports in this manner and I did it in good faith. I could recall one Mr. Robinson, I guess some of us here can recall Mr. Robinson was the gentleman in Orange Walk who was burnt, I think he had about 95 percent of the body burnt and it was a life and death situation. He had to be flown out of the country like the following day when the family came to my office that was in Belize City. Mr. Robinson could not move from the hospital bed and Mr. Robinson needed to go. The family came to see me and they expressed their concerned and I said okay, I have to go and see Mr. Robinson and I thought I must use my initiative because this a life and death situation and I asked the wife to provide me with a photograph. If she could provide me with a photograph this size I will try it and I tried and it worked. I also had a situation with a baby, baby Wade which I think that child was born with a heart disorder and it was again a life and death situation. The child had to go out like immediately and I tried the same thing and it worked, I got permission from Mr. Murillo and we were able to do a passport for the child. But normally you get a photograph for a passport would be a 2 by 2. A 2 by 2 won't work so I thought about a photograph more or less this size so I thought I told the family member try and get a photograph this size."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"The size of an 8 and a half by 11?"

Therese Chavarria
"A letter size paper; normally the person would sit, we have a seat provided where the camera is so I said okay I need to do something similar. I took that photograph and I used a piece of tape and I taped it here (on chair) that's normally where the person would sit and I asked the officer to try and take a photo. And that's what basically."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"So you were there when it was done?"

Therese Chavarria
"Yes."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Did it take a long time to do?"

Therese Chavarria
"No."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"5 minutes, 10 minutes?"

Therese Chavarria
"5 minutes."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"What about the quality?"

Therese Chavarria
"That was what I mentioned, the quality was not the quality that we expect but like I said we need to get these patience out. So we accepted, it was visible, we could recognise the person, we saw the picture."