SAN DIEGO (CNS) — A San Diego man who impersonated a U.S. Border Patrol agent with the goal of opposing the government's deportation efforts was sentenced Friday to six months in prison.
Jaime Ernesto Alvarez Gonzalez, an undocumented migrant who has been living in San Diego for the past 38 years, pleaded guilty to federal charges related to impersonating a federal officer and illegally possessing firearms.
Prosecutors say that on Jan. 8, he followed a Border Patrol agent while driving a pickup truck that was outfitted to appear like a law enforcement vehicle. The truck had a U.S. Border Patrol sticker on its windshield, a lightbar typically used by law enforcement, handcuffs hanging from its rearview mirror, and a license plate identifying it as a "ferderal truck."
Alvarez Gonzalez was also dressed like a Border Patrol Agent by wearing a face mask and a "thin green line" hat, prosecutors said.
In their sentencing papers, prosecutors wrote that the Border Patrol agent was "running an active deportation mission," but became confused when he saw Alvarez Gonzalez's vehicle and was "forced to deconflict for federal and state authorities for public safety concerns, but his mission was blown."
The U.S. Attorney's Office said deconfliction is when law enforcement avoids having multiple agencies or officers working simultaneously in the same area because officers might misidentify another officer as an armed perpetrator.
Later that day, federal agents and Alvarez Gonzalez confronted one another in Linda Vista. Prosecutors said he yelled "obscenities" at the agents, told them to get out of Linda Vista, and "commanded" three other vehicles to follow the departing agents.
He was arrested about a week later, at which point he was found with an apparent FBI access card and told agents he worked with "an anti-ICE organization dedicated to interfering with ICE operations," prosecutors wrote.
His defense attorney, Cindy Muro, wrote in sentencing papers that Alvarez Gonzalez regrets his actions, but wrote that he "thought he was doing what he could to protect his neighbors."
The attorney wrote that his conduct was affected by recent increased immigration enforcement efforts.
"Mr. Alvarez Gonzalez witnessed people who looked like him being picked up on the streets by ICE. He saw the news about parents being arrested by ICE as they dropped their children off at school. He heard about his neighbors who were too afraid to leave their homes in fear that they, too, might be deported," Muro wrote.
She also noted that the Jan. 8 offense happened one day after the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis by ICE officers and that her client had seen news reports of the shooting.
Alvarez Gonzalez's remaining custodial time is expected to be brief, as he has already been in custody for much of the six-month term he received Friday, but the conviction means he will be deported.
Muro wrote that Alvarez Gonazlez came to the United States when he was a teenager, then overstayed his visa.
"He not only faces a custodial sanction and felony on his record, but he will be deported from the country he's called home for almost all of his life," the attorney wrote.
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