MEXICAN CITIZEN SENTENCED TO IMPRISONMENT FOR IMMIGRATION OFFENSES

A. Courtney Cox, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that on September 10, 2009, JOSE ANTONIO RANGEL CASTILLO, age 29, of Mexico, was sentenced to a 185 day term of imprisonment following his convictions for Passport Fraud; Possession of a False Alien Registration Receipt Card; and Illegal Reentry by a Removed Alien. RANGEL CASTILLO pleaded guilty to the charges on June 1, 2009. He has been in custody since his arrest on March 9, 2009, and is facing removal to Mexico at the completion of his sentence.

At the time of the entry of his plea, RANGEL CASTILLO entered into a factual stipulation which indicated that on November 7, 2008, at the Granite City Post Office, he attempted to obtain a genuine United States Passport by willfully and knowingly making a false statement in a passport application. In his application, RANGEL CASTILLO falsely identified himself as a United States citizen, stated that his name was N.C.H. and stated that he was born in Puerto Rico (which he misspelled). As proof of citizenship, and in furtherance of his attempt to fraudulently obtain a passport, defendant presented a genuine Puerto Rican birth certificate in the name of N.C.H., a real individual.

On February 18, 2009, federal agents went to defendant’s place of employment in Granite City and interviewed RANGEL CASTILLO regarding his passport application and his immigration status. During the interview, RANGEL CASTILLO admitted that he was in the United States illegally. Agents showed defendant his fraudulent passport application and defendant acknowledged that he had submitted it. RANGEL CASTILLO indicated that he had purchased the Puerto Rican identity documents in 2000 for around $200. RANGEL CASTILLO stated that he had a fake “green card” at his house, and he later surrendered it to agents.

Information for the indictment was obtained in an investigation conducted by the United States Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Suzanne M. Garrison.