Mexican citizen voted illegally, backed Trump, prosecutors say

SACRAMENTO -- Prosecutors mined an extensive paper trail in federal court on Tuesday as they sought to show a Mexican citizen lived illegally in the United States for more than 20 years and voted in elections.

In some ways the charges against the man who has been living as Hiram Velez fit with a narrative often pushed by conservatives: People in the country illegally are voting and helping Democrats win. But evidence presented by U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors on Tuesday show the defendant is a Republican and supporter of President Donald Trump.

According to the charges, the defendant is Gustavo Lerma. Prosecutors say he stole the identity of a Puerto Rican man of a similar age who died in 1997 and subsequently used the identity to fake his own citizenship and gain U.S. citizenship for his wife and two Mexican-born children.

The defendant faces charges of identity theft, lying to gain a U.S. passport and illegally voting in five primary or general elections between 2012 and 2016.

His wife, identified in court documents as Maria Velez, also faces charges. Court documents allege the pair was married in Mexico and came to the United States in 1992 and began submitting false documents to U.S. officials that same year. USA v. Lerma, 17-CR00195 (E.D. Cal., filed Oct. 13, 2017).

A passport application filed under the name Hiram Velez was flagged by the State Department in 2013 after the name showed up in a database as deceased. A subsequent search showed the defendant's photo did not match the original Velez, according to the charges.

Much of Tuesday was spent on the testimony of the special agent with the State Department who filed the original affidavit in the case, Wei C. Hung. He was part of a team of agents that raided the defendants' Sacramento home in 2016. That search allegedly produced a wealth of physical evidence of the deception, including books about Puerto Rico.

"Did you find evidence the defendant had studied the specific Puerto Rican neighborhood where the real Hiram Velez was born?" asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine T. Lydon.

Hung answered that he had. He also testified he found voter pamphlets, identification cards showing the defendant's membership in Republican organizations as well as a letter from Trump's 2016 campaign thanking him for his support. Lydon implied these showed the defendant "was a dedicated voter" who participated in "several elections."

The defendant's attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Douglas J. Beevers, frequently objected as Lydon presented the physical evidence. At one point, Beevers persuaded U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez to warn Lydon she had gone "too far afield" in her questions as she tried to demonstrate passport fraud.

Beevers has insisted his client legally changed his name to Hiram Velez, and the children are actually his stepchildren. He asked Hung if he found evidence in the home confirming the defendant was the Mexican national Gustavo Lerma. Hung admitted he hadn't, but that he did find information about other family members linking the Velez and Lerma identities.

Court documents also show the defendant submitted a request to fire his attorney and receive new counsel on July 17. Two weeks later, Beevers submitted a trial brief arguing prosecutors have failed to prove their case and stating, "Under California common law a person may change his name at any time without initiating legal proceedings."

In another strange twist in the case, court documents show the original Hiram Velez has an extensive criminal record, and at least one other man with a long police record had also been arrested while using Velez's identity.