Recently, a federal court in Miami found a Cuban accused of committing fraud to become a naturalized U.S. citizen guilty, a benefit he will lose for lying to the authorities of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), according to journalist Mario J Penton. The Cuban offered false information while under oath and omitted other past crimes such as child abuse, which the Office of Detention and Deportation (ERO) discovered in an investigation.
According to a statement from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service, the defendant applied for naturalization on July 14, 2017, and lied to authorities on more than one occasion to achieve his goals. First, he lied about whether he had committed any crime without being arrested and trying to force someone to have sex.
This attitude continued in a second interview on April 19, 2018, when he again denied the questions previously raised, knowing that he was committing the crime of perjury by lying to officials, and a week and a half later he officially took the oath in a naturalization ceremony.
On May 19, 2018, Chávez applied for his American passport using the naturalization certificate he obtained by lying to the authorities, an action that was also taken into account to demonstrate his guilt in the events.
Once he became a naturalized American that same year, 2018, he was arrested on two counts of child sexual abuse, a crime he committed in 2014 against a minor under 12 years of age, according to what the U.S. District Attorney's Office for the Southern District said. In 2019, he was found guilty of that crime and sentenced to 14 years in prison and five years of probation. The judge also ordered him to participate in a sex offender assistance program.
A hearing is scheduled for January 8, 2025 before District Judge Roy Altman, who must issue a sentence and revoke the U.S. citizenship of the Cuban. Orlando may be the same individual who raped his seven-year-old daughter twice, however, the prosecution did not mention this aspect at the hearing. The accusatory arguments were presented by Melissa Roca Shaw, chief assistant attorney for the Department of Homeland Security, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Yisel Valdés.
The fraud case filed against Orlando was referred to ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division in Miami as part of Operation False Haven, which seeks to identify and prosecute perpetrators of sexual crimes against minors and others who seek to fraudulently naturalize in the United States.
