MEXICANS: Two Johnston County immigrants stripped of citizenship; Both sent to prison for lying about child sex offenses

Arheel's Uncle

Senior Reporter


Two Johnston County immigrants stripped of citizenship​


Both sent to prison for lying about child sex offenses​


  • From staff reports
  • May 1, 2023

  • Two Johnston County men were recently sentenced in federal court to crimes that sent them both to prison and stripped them both of their naturalized citizenship. Now, both face deportation.

    U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle sentenced Cruz Miguel Aguina, 40, to eight months in prison and Armando Marinero-Garcia, 49, to five months in prison following guilty pleas to immigration fraud.

    Investigators say they both fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship by “making materially false statements under oath” on their naturalization applications.

    When applying for citizenship, each man was asked if he was “ever involved in any way with … forcing or trying to force someone to have any kind of sexual contact or relations.”

    Both men answered “no.”

    They were also asked if they have “ever committed, assisted in committing or attempted to commit a crime or offense for which you were not arrested.”

    They each replied “no.”

    Aguina applied for citizenship on July 3, 2019. Prosecutors say he confessed to raping a child between Jan. 1 and Dec. 30 of 2019 when he was convicted in Johnston County Superior Court of the statutory rape of a child on June 16, 2022.

    He was sentenced to serve 20 to 29 years in prison and was ordered to register as a sex offender last year.

    Federal prosecutors say the transcripts from his 2022 trial show he was engaged in the illegal activity when he applied for citizenship.

    Marinero-Garcia was convicted of four counts of taking indecent liberties with a child and one count of committing a crime against nature in Wake County Superior Court on June 14, 2022.

    According to the transcript of his plea and judgments, Marinero-Garcia committed the crimes on Aug. 1, 2016 so he lied on his application for citizenship on June 1, 2018.

    Michael Easley, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcements. Agents with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations and Homeland Security Investigations, assigned to the Document Benefit Fraud Task Force, investigated the cases.
0
 

Attachments

  • 1683063826820.png
    1683063826820.png
    73 bytes · Views: 0
  • 1683063826934.png
    1683063826934.png
    73 bytes · Views: 0
  • 1683063826872.png
    1683063826872.png
    73 bytes · Views: 0
Back
Top