A man from San Diego, California, admitted to conning immigrants seeking green cards and US citizenship by impersonating an US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or a Homeland Security agent.
55-year-old Davyd George Brand Jimenez, accused of conning Orange County immigrants out of tens of thousands of dollars, entered a guilty plea this past week in Los Angeles to 10 counts of false impersonation of a federal officer or employee, two counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and one count each of fraudulent possession and use of US government seals and aggravated identity theft.
How a US man faked being ICE officer to scam immigrants
With the case dating back to April 2019, Davyd George Brand Jimenez charged each victim between $10,000 and $20,000, claiming that he could assist them in acquiring work permits, legal US residency, and US citizenship, according to the US Justice Department’s indictment in 2023.
Posing as a special agent affiliated with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), he also flaunted a fake ICE badge in front of his victims. While he sometimes posed as an ICE federal agent or a federal Homeland Security official, at other times he told immigrants he was a “G-18” federal official, which is a fake position.
Back in 2023, the DOJ noted that the San Diego man scammed more than 25 Orange County victims using his false title, despite never having been employed by ICE. Most of the victims he targeted were undocumented members of the Latino community.
According to the indictment, his scheme stretched from April 2019 to November 2020. It further states that he not only failed to file immigration paperwork for the immigrants but also never secured any immigration benefits for them after extorting thousands of dollars.
Instead of helping the green card-seeking victims, he fabricated immigration documents that fraudulently displayed the US Department of Homeland Security’s emblem. According to the official release, Jimenez even faked a stay of deportation order and gave it to one of his victims, presenting it as supposed proof that the person would not be deported, which was false.
As detailed by the DHS at the time, the US man provided a victim with a valid Social Security card, a US passport card, and a California Identification card on a separate occasion. He told the victim to use thosicee IDs under a different person’s name as “proof” to live and work in the US.
What’s next for the fake ICE officer?
According to the US Justice Department, Jimenez’s sentencing is set for July 16. He faces up to 117 years of imprisonment, a three-year period of supervised release, a $4 million fine, and $152,476 in restitution to at least 25 victims.
In a similar case of identity impersonation, Jamie Ernesto Alvarez-Gonzalez, a Mexican man in the US, recently pleaded guilty to posing as a Border Patrol agent and following federal immigration officers to “disrupt deportation missions” in Southern California.
According to the US attorney’s office, he put a Border Patrol sticker in the windshield and a non-working radio communications antenna on the roof, in addition to hanging handcuffs from the rearview mirror. He also possessed a fake FBI badge. Having originally entered the US decades ago, Gonzalez overstayed his visitor visa. He has since pleaded guilty to one count of impersonating a federal agent and three counts of illegally possessing firearms.