A Guatemalan national unlawfully residing in the United States pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated identity theft and false statements related to the submission of a fraudulent application to sponsor an unaccompanied alien child.
Court documents say that Felix Coc Choc, 29, of Rogers, Arkansas, submitted an application to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement under penalty of perjury to sponsor and obtain custody of a UAC after the UAC entered the United States illegally.
As admitted in the plea agreement, after the 16-year-old Guatemalan UAC entered the United States illegally in Jan. 2023, Coc Choc submitted an application to sponsor the UAC, falsely claiming to be the UAC’s brother, J.C.J. Coc Choc also provided to ORR J.C.J.’s Guatemalan national identification card and birth certificate in support of the sponsorship application.
After initially denying that he was using another individual’s identity, Coc Choc admitted to impersonating J.C.J and then submitted a sponsorship application in his true name. ORR denied this application as a result of the fraud.
Coc Choc pleaded guilty to one count of making a false, fictitious or fraudulent statement and one count of aggravated identity theft. At sentencing, Coc Choc faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the false statement count, and a mandatory consecutive penalty of two years in prison on the aggravated identity theft count. The Court will schedule Coc Choc’s sentencing at a later date. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
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The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General is investigating the case. Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) Legal Attaché team in Guatemala, HSI’s Center for Countering Human Trafficking in Washington, D.C. and ORR provided valuable assistance.
Joint Task Force Alpha Trial Attorneys Aaron Jennen and Nicole Lockhart and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Craig for the Middle District of Louisiana are prosecuting the case, with substantial assistance from Samantha Usher of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Arkansas.
The Attorney General has elevated and expanded JTFA to target the most prolific and dangerous human smuggling and trafficking groups operating not only in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, but also in Canada, the Caribbean, and the maritime border, and elsewhere.
Led by the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and supported by the Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section, the Office of International Affairs, and the Office of Enforcement Operations, among others, JTFA has dedicated Assistant United States Attorney-detailees from the Southern District of California; District of Arizona; District of New Mexico; Western and Southern Districts of Texas; Southern District of Florida; Northern District of New York; and District of Vermont. JTFA also partners with other USAOs throughout the country and supports high-priority cases in any district.
All JTFA cases rely on substantial law enforcement resources from DHS, including ICE/ HSI and CBP/BP and OFO, as well as FBI and other law enforcement agencies. To date, JTFA’s work has resulted in more than 440 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organizers, and significant facilitators of alien smuggling and/or trafficking; more than 390 U.S. convictions; more than 330 significant jail sentences imposed, and forfeitures of substantial assets.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and other transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhoods.
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