Felix Coc Choc, 29, admitted using a stolen identity to try to take custody of a 16-year-old unaccompanied alien who entered the United States in January 2023, pleading guilty to aggravated identity theft and making false statements after submitting a fraudulent sponsorship application to the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
A Guatemalan national unlawfully residing in the United States pleaded guilty to federal charges after investigators traced a sponsorship application back to him. Officials say the application falsely claimed a family relationship with the unaccompanied child and included another person’s Guatemalan ID and birth certificate as supporting documents.
The defendant, identified as Felix Coc Choc of Rogers, Arkansas, initially denied using someone else’s identity but later admitted he impersonated a brother identified as J.C.J. Court records show Coc Choc first presented J.C.J.’s documents to the Office of Refugee Resettlement when seeking custody of the minor.
After authorities flagged the submission, Coc Choc turned around and filed a second sponsorship application in his own name, which ORR denied because of the prior fraud. Investigators concluded the sequence of filings and the use of another person’s documentation amounted to identity theft and material misrepresentation to a federal agency.
Coc Choc pleaded guilty to one count of making a false, fictitious or fraudulent statement and one count of aggravated identity theft. The false statement count carries a maximum of five years in prison and the aggravated identity theft count brings a mandatory consecutive two-year term; a federal judge will set the sentence after reviewing the Sentencing Guidelines and statutory factors.
The case is under review by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, with significant support from Homeland Security Investigations. HSI’s Legal Attaché team in Guatemala and HSI’s Center for Countering Human Trafficking in Washington, D.C., as well as ORR personnel, all provided investigative and operational assistance.
Prosecutors handling the matter include Joint Task Force Alpha Trial Attorneys Aaron Jennen and Nicole Lockhart and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Craig for the Middle District of Louisiana. The prosecution also benefited from help provided by Samantha Usher of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and attorneys from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Arkansas.
The Attorney General has expanded Joint Task Force Alpha to take on high-volume smuggling and trafficking networks operating not only in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, but also in Canada, the Caribbean, and along maritime borders. That effort is led by the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and is supported by the Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section, the Office of International Affairs, and the Office of Enforcement Operations.
JTFA works with dedicated Assistant United States Attorney-detailees from multiple districts across the country and partners with USAOs nationwide to support priority prosecutions. All JTFA cases rely on substantial law enforcement resources from DHS, including ICE/HSI and CBP, as well as the FBI and other agencies, and the task force reports concrete results: more than 440 domestic and international arrests, over 390 U.S. convictions, more than 330 significant jail sentences imposed, and the forfeiture of substantial assets.
The case is being prosecuted as part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that uses the Department of Justice’s full resources 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.” The prosecution and wider task force activity underscore a push by law enforcement to close loopholes and hold accountable those who exploit the system and endanger communities.
