“The Secretary Said You’re Not Welcome Here”: Five Years of Abandonment, Then Assault

Five Years of Systematic Abandonment

The November 11, 2025 assault was not an isolated incident. It was the culmination of more than five years of systematic denial of consular services to a stranded U.S. Army veteran.

To understand how extraordinary the embassy’s conduct has been, we need to understand who Kelvin Blas is, how he became stranded, and what the embassy should have done—but didn’t—over the course of five years and 15 documented attempts to seek help.

Who Is Sgt. Kelvin Blas?

Sgt. Blas is not a tourist who lost his passport. He is not someone with questionable citizenship trying to obtain U.S. documents fraudulently. He is not a person with a criminal history trying to flee the country.

He is a U.S. Army veteran with 13 years of honorable military service who has been stranded in a foreign country for more than five years because local authorities confiscated his passport and his own embassy refuses to help him get home.

This is precisely the type of case that consular sections exist to handle. A U.S. citizen in distress abroad, with documents confiscated by foreign authorities, seeking assistance to return home. This should be a straightforward consular case.

Instead, it has become a five-year ordeal of systematic denial, culminating in physical violence.

March 2020: The Beginning

In March 2020, Togolese authorities confiscated Sgt. Blas’s passport. The specific circumstances of the confiscation are still being investigated, but what matters for consular purposes is straightforward: a U.S. citizen had his travel documents taken by a foreign government and has been unable to leave the country ever since.

When a U.S. citizen’s passport is confiscated by foreign authorities, the U.S. embassy has clear responsibilities under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual:

• Provide consular access – The citizen must be able to reach and communicate with consular officers
• Issue emergency travel documents – If the original passport cannot be recovered, issue temporary travel documents to allow the citizen to return home
• Advocate with local authorities – Engage with the foreign government to secure return of the passport or clarify the legal basis for its retention
• Provide welfare and whereabouts assistance – Ensure the citizen’s safety and keep family/advocates informed

These are not optional services. These are core consular functions that embassies are specifically staffed and funded to perform.

Sgt. Blas began seeking this assistance in March 2020. He has been seeking it ever since.

2020-2025: Fifteen Attempts, Fifteen Denials

Between March 2020 and November 2025, Sgt. Blas made 15 documented attempts to seek assistance from the U.S. Embassy in Lomé.

Each time, he was denied services.

We use the term “documented” deliberately. These are the attempts that we can verify through Sgt. Blas’s own records, through communications with advocacy organizations, and through corroboration from witnesses and embassy staff. There may have been additional attempts that were not documented.

But 15 documented attempts over five years—an average of three per year—represents a pattern of persistent effort to seek help from his own government, met with consistent refusal.

Over five years, the embassy had numerous opportunities to resolve this case:

• They could have issued an emergency passport or travel document
• They could have advocated with Togolese authorities for the return of his passport
• They could have provided a repatriation loan to get him home
• They could have connected him with emergency financial assistance
• They could have simply documented his case and explained what steps he needed to take

Instead, they denied him services 15 times over five years. And on the 15th attempt, they physically assaulted him.

What Should Have Happened

To understand how extraordinary the embassy’s conduct has been, it’s helpful to understand what should have happened when Sgt. Blas first sought help in March 2020.

Standard Consular Response to a Stranded Citizen:

This is not an unusual or burdensome set of services. This is literally what consular sections do every day at embassies around the world. U.S. citizens get stranded abroad for various reasons—lost passports, medical emergencies, financial difficulties, legal issues—and embassies are specifically staffed and funded to help them get home.

The total time required for a consular officer to handle Sgt. Blas’s case: probably 5-10 hours over the course of several weeks.

The total cost to U.S. taxpayers: probably $2,000-$4,000 (emergency document, staff time, repatriation loan if needed).

Instead, Embassy Lomé spent five years denying services, which likely cost significantly more in staff time, management attention, and now—after the November 11 assault—potential legal liability and reputational damage.

Why Was He Denied Services?

This is the central question: Why would an embassy systematically deny services to a stranded U.S. Army veteran for five years?

We don’t have a definitive answer, because the embassy has not provided one. But we can identify several possibilities based on the available evidence:

Possibility #1: “No Appointment”

Embassy staff have stated that Sgt. Blas was denied services because he “had no appointment.” But this explanation doesn’t hold up:

• Consular emergencies don’t require appointments—that’s why they’re emergencies
• If appointments are required, embassy should have scheduled one for him
• Even if the first attempt required an appointment, what about attempts 2 through 15?
• The “no appointment” justification appears to be a pretext rather than a legitimate reason

Possibility #2: “Difficult” Case

Perhaps embassy staff viewed Sgt. Blas as a “difficult” case—someone whose situation was complicated, who required more work than a standard passport replacement, who might have legal issues that made the embassy wary of getting involved.

But even if his case was complex, that doesn’t justify five years of denial. Complex cases require more work, not avoidance.

Possibility #3: Retaliation for Persistence

The pattern suggests that the more Sgt. Blas sought help, the more the embassy resisted providing it. By attempt #15, embassy staff were monitoring “negative comments” about their conduct online and were threatening him with arrest.

This suggests the embassy viewed Sgt. Blas not as a citizen in need of help, but as a problem to be managed—or eliminated.

Possibility #4: Systemic Dysfunction

Perhaps Embassy Lomé is simply dysfunctional. Perhaps they systematically deny services to many Americans, not just Sgt. Blas. Perhaps there are management failures, training gaps, or cultural issues that result in consular services being withheld from people who need them.

If this is the case, then Sgt. Blas’s case is not an isolated problem—it’s evidence of a broader pattern that requires investigation.

The Cost of Abandonment

Five years of abandonment has had severe consequences for Sgt. Blas:

• Unable to return home – He cannot leave Togo without travel documents
• Unable to work legally – Without valid immigration status or work authorization
• Living in poverty – By November 11, he hadn’t eaten in three days
• No access to VA benefits – Cannot access veteran healthcare or other benefits while stranded abroad
• Psychological toll – Years of abandonment by his own government
• Now threatened with violence – Embassy has physically assaulted him and threatened arrest if he seeks help again

This is what systematic abandonment looks like. Not a bureaucratic delay. Not a processing backlog. But five years of a veteran asking his own government for help and being told—15 times—that he is not welcome.

The Pattern Is the Story

The November 11 assault cannot be understood in isolation. It is the logical endpoint of five years of escalating hostility:

This is not a story about one bad day. This is a story about systematic failure, escalating hostility, and leadership-authorized violence against a U.S. citizen who simply wants to go home.