Customs officials: Man tried 5 times to enter U.S. illegally

By Tovin Lapan (contact)

Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013 | 3:12 p.m.

In this case, perseverance was not a virtue.

Just before the new year, Jared Gonzalez-Borjorquez, who had been deported a month earlier, flew into McCarran International Airport and made his fifth attempt at entering the country illegally, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials allege.

Suspicious of his documents, customs officers at McCarran detained and eventually arrested Gonzalez-Borjorquez on Dec. 28.

Gonzalez-Borjorquez, 24, allegedly was traveling with a counterfeit Mexican passport and a fraudulent non-immigrant visa as he arrived from Guadalajara, an agency release issued Thursday said.

When Gonzalez-Borjorquez applied for admission to the United States, he presented a Mexican passport and non-immigrant visa in the name of Fernando Garcia Felix, according to Customs and Border Protection officials. When he landed at McCarran and went through immigration, a CBP officer noted that the passport and visa did not appear to have security features of a genuine document, officials said.

He was referred for further screening, and the passport and visa were determined by a second official to be counterfeit. Gonzalez-Borjorquez had been previously deported in November 2012, after numerous attempts to re-enter the country illegally, according to Customs and Border Protection officials.

“CBP officers are well trained in detecting fraudulent documents and apprehending imposters. This is one example of their diligence and vigilance,” Todd C. Owen, CBP Director of Field Operations in Los Angeles, said in a statement.

Gonzalez-Borjorquez was arrested and charged with illegal reentry, use of a false passport, and fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents. He appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Las Vegas on Jan. 2 and was detained pending a preliminary hearing, scheduled for Jan. 16.