Jamaican National Pleads Guilty to Re-entering the County Illegally After Deportation and Fraudulently Applying for U.S. Passport

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney William M. McSwain announced that Rohan Maxwell, 45, of Allentown, Pennsylvania today entered a plea of guilty to one count of illegally re-entering the United States after deportation and one count of passport fraud before United States District Judge J. Curtis Joyner.

Maxwell was charged in August 2019 by Superseding Indictment with illegal re-entry after deportation and passport fraud, whereby having been deported to his native Jamaica on three separate occasions in 1997, 1999, and 2004, he submitted an application for a United States passport in 2011 using the identity of another person. The defendant was found in the United States in Lehigh County in July 2019.

“To state the obvious, those who enter our country illegally are not above the law – nobody is,” said U.S. Attorney McSwain. “By his actions, Maxwell has demonstrated a blatant disrespect for our nation’s laws. Not only did he flout our immigration laws, but also he committed an additional fraud to obtain a U.S. passport. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to uphold the rule of law and ensure our nation’s immigration laws are enforced.”

The case was investigated by the Diplomatic Security Service and Homeland Security Investigations, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Josh A. Davison.