Federal prosecutors indicted and then put out an arrest warrant on Dawkins earlier this year while he was working as one of Guantánamo’s most prolific public affairs photographers — capturing intimate images of the captives in the prison camps, celebrities and fellow soldiers.
His alleged offense: He failed to report in a 2006 State Department application for a passport that he had earlier started the process of applying in 2003.
It’s a felony. Conviction is punishable by as much as 10 years in prison. Dawkins’ case is complicated by the fact that he may not be an American citizen. The charge surfaced a two-decade-old Immigration Service case that ordered Dawkins’ deportation, at age 8, with his mother to the Bahamas.
Instead, his lawyer said, the young man stayed behind in Miami, and was raised by relatives believing he was a U.S. citizen.
And he may be. At age 21, Dawkins obtained a delayed State of Florida birth certificate indicating he was born in Miami-Dade County. He’s also been a registered Florida voter since 2002.
