A US citizen living in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, has been sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for allowing a Mexican national to use his birth certificate to falsely claim US citizenship at a Border Patrol checkpoint in exchange for money, the US Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico said. David Ramirez, 31, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States, and will be subject to three years of supervised release after prison. There is no parole in the federal system.
Source: US Department of Justice, District of New Mexico
According to court documents cited by the Justice Department, Border Patrol agents at the Alamogordo checkpoint encountered the Mexican national on December 1, 2025. He presented Ramirez's legitimate birth certificate and falsely claimed to be a US citizen. During questioning, he admitted he was a Mexican citizen unlawfully present in the United States and had obtained the certificate through an intermediary, the department said. KFOX14/CBS4 reported the same checkpoint account in its coverage of the sentencing.
Source: KFOX14/CBS4 via Europe Says
On February 14, 2026, Border Patrol agents encountered Ramirez at the Bridge of the Americas Port of Entry in El Paso, Texas, the Justice Department said. Ramirez admitted he had allowed the Mexican national to use his birth certificate to falsely claim US citizenship at the checkpoint in exchange for money. The case was investigated by the US Border Patrol El Paso Sector and prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Judith Crews. First Assistant US Attorney Ryan Ellison and Chief Patrol Agent Jesse D. Munoz of the El Paso Sector announced the sentence.
Source: US Department of Justice, District of New Mexico
The case is a federal prosecution, not an allegation against the man who used the document at the checkpoint in this announcement. Prosecutors treated the sale of a genuine US birth certificate for someone else's false citizenship claim as conspiracy to defraud the United States — a reminder that lending or selling identity documents, even genuine ones, carries federal prison time.