U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of Texas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THURSDAY, OCT. 2, 2008

LAREDO MAN AND FORMER CBP OFFICER SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR SELLING OFFICIAL TRAVEL PERMITS

(LAREDO, Texas)—A former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer and a Laredo man who acted as one of his document vendors have been sentenced to prison for their involvement in a scheme that falsely produced and brokered official travel documents, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today.

Former CBP officer Ramiro Villarreal Jr., 28, and Juan Esteban Velasquez, 52, both of Laredo, conspired to fraudulently produce Department of Homeland Security (DHS) CBP Arrival-Departure Record, also known as Form I-94, from approximately February 2007 through Villarreal's arrest on May 1, 2008. Today, U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez sentenced Villarreal to 60 months in prison, while Velasquez received 18 months.

CBP uses Form I-94 to document a nonimmigrant alien’s legal admission into the United States. Form I-94 permits are utilized by foreign nationals in conjunction with an entry document, such as a passport or a DSP-150 B1/B2 visa (commonly known as a border crossing card or laser visa), to travel beyond border immigration checkpoints into the interior of the United States. When entering by land through an international bridge, an applicant for a Form I-94 permit applies in person and presents his/her passport or border crossing card. A CBP officer then reviews the travel permit application and inspects the applicant for admission. If granted the permit, the CBP officer will issue it under the officer’s stamp.

As part of the conspiracy, Villarreal issued completed Forms I-94 while working his assigned duties as a CBP officer at one of the land ports of entry in Laredo. Villarreal would receive orders for Forms I-94 along with biographical and passport or visa information of an alien who needed the permit. Villarreal would make the Forms I-94 during his assigned shift at one of the international bridge’s document processing areas. During the sentencing hearing, Judge Alvarez determined Villarreal fraudulently issued approximately 220 Forms I-94 by processing them without any of the named aliens having solicited the permits in person and being subjected to inspections at the port of entry, in violation of immigration laws and regulations. Villarreal would then meet with Velasquez and others to deliver the completed permits in exchange for bribery payments in most cases. Villarreal’s sentence includes an upward adjustment because he abused a position of trust and had a leadership role in the scheme.

Villarreal was arrested on May 1, 2008, in possession of two I-94s he had fraudulently produced. He and Velasquez were indicted May 20, 2008, in a five-count indictment and both pleaded guilty pursuant to a plea agreement to a single count of conspiracy to traffic in fraudulent immigration permits.

Villarreal was permitted to remain free on bond pending the issuance of an order to surrender to a Bureau of Prisons facility to be designated in the near future. Velasquez was immediately ordered into the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service to begin serving his sentence pending transfer to a Bureau of Prisons facility to be designated in the near future. Following their release from prison, the court has ordered each to serve a three-year-term of supervised release. Each was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.

The investigation leading to the charges in this case was conducted by Special Agents of the FBI and the DHS—Office of the Inspector General, with the assistance of CBP. Assistant United States Attorney Diana Song prosecuted the case.