Pedophile priest who impregnated teen to be deported after lying to gain US citizenship
A Catholic priest who once worked in Maryland and Louisiana will soon be deported to his native Colombia after he impregnated a teenage girl and lied in the process of obtaining U.S. citizenship.
On Monday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana announced that Jorge Antonio Velez-Lopez, 69, had been "civilly denaturalized as a United States citizen" after District Judge Dee Drell sentenced him to 12 months in prison for passport fraud.
Velez's case actually started all the way back in 2001, when he moved from Bogota, Colombia, to serve in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Within a few years, whispers began that he had been having an inappropriate relationship with a teenage girl. According to a 2023 investigative report issued by the Maryland Attorney General's Office, he was even caught naked in bed with the girl, though both separately denied it.
The complaints against Velez were initially not deemed credible. However, they eventually "cast some doubt regarding Father Velez’s ability to minister effectively," according to a 2010 letter written by an individual identified in the AG report only as Official B, and the archdiocese stripped Velez of his ministerial "faculties" there, the AG report said.
Velez was then transferred to the Diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana. Before he left Baltimore, however, the girl became pregnant with Velez's child. While in Louisiana, Velez signed an affidavit acknowledging that he is the father of the child, and the child's birth certificate lists him as the father, the AG report said.
The victim claimed the sexual relationship with Velez began when she was just 15 years old, the AG report said. Velez claimed it began in June 2005, according to the U.S. attorney's office press release, when he 49.
'We will ensure that justice is done.'
Meanwhile in 2013, Velez took steps to become a naturalized citizen. During that process, he swore under penalty of perjury on his application that "he had never committed a crime for which he had not been arrested." He also swore that he had never given "false or misleading information ... for an immigration benefit" or "lied to any U.S. Government official to gain entry or admission to the U.S.," the press release from the U.S. attorney's office said.
He later confirmed during an oral interview with an immigration officer that he had never lied or given false or misleading statements to secure citizenship, the press release said.
So in May 2013, Velez took the Oath of Allegiance and became a U.S. citizen. Four months later, he applied for a U.S. passport and his citizenship certificate. Once again, Velez swore under penalty of perjury that he had not submitted any false documents as part of the application.
By 2016, the victim had come forward and reported the abuse by Velez. "When confronted, Velez admitted that everything the victim said was true," the AG report said.
That same year, the Diocese of Alexandria issued a decree declaring that "well-founded allegations of sexual misconduct with a female minor" had been leveled against Velez and that he had been removed from his duties at two local parishes, his Hispanic outreach, and his ministerial work at a federal prison.
In 2020, Velez was arrested in Maryland and charged with five counts of third-degree sex offense and one count of fourth-degree sex offense. The following year, he pled guilty to sexual abuse of a minor for whom he had temporary responsibility for supervising and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, though 16 years of that sentence was suspended, leaving him to serve nine years.
Since then, Velez has been locked up in Jessup Correctional Institution in Maryland. He has also been forced to register as a sex offender.
Velez will remain in the U.S. until he completes both his state-level sentence related to child sexual abuse and federal-level sentence for passport fraud. Once they are over, he will be remanded to the custody of ICE and deported back to Colombia. Whether he has been laicized by the Catholic Church remains unclear.
"The United States Department of Justice, ICE, and our other federal law enforcement partners will use every tool in our arsenal to protect children and will prosecute and seek deportation of those who fraudulently obtain U.S. citizenship," said acting United States Attorney Alexander Van Hook.
"This case sends a clear message to individuals who commit any type of sexual offense, particularly those involving children, during the naturalization process — we will ensure that justice is done," said acting Assistant Attorney General Yaakov Roth.
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