Nebraska illegal alien from Guatemala sentenced to more than 2 years in federal prison for identity theft, false claim to US citizenship

OMAHA, Neb. — An illegal alien from Guatemala was sentenced Monday to more than two years in federal prison for identity theft and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship.

This sentence resulted from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

U.S. District Court Judge Laurie Smith Camp sentenced Sebastian Velasquez-Ramos, 47, to 28 months in federal prison following his criminal convictions for fraudulently using a Social Security card, falsely claiming U.S. citizenship, and aggravated identity theft. Velasquez-Ramos previously pleaded guilty to the charges.

An investigation determined that in 2017, Velasquez-Ramos used a false social security number, and he falsely claimed that he was a U.S. citizen to obtain employment at an Omaha company.  

Velasquez-Ramos is also currently serving a separate prison sentence following a state conviction for leaving the scene of a fatal multi-vehicle crash. In April 2018, Velasquez-Ramos fatally hit a motorcyclist in Omaha and left the scene of the crash.

The 28-month federal sentence is to be served consecutively to the state sentence Velasquez-Ramos is now serving. In addition to his federal prison sentence, he must also complete three years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal prison system.