A California woman was sentenced earlier this week to 12 and a half months in prison for aiding and abetting her boyfriend in stealing the identity of her brother to commit a variety of federal crimes in the United States.
Kassandra Sanchez, 24, of San Diego, was charged with false personation in an immigration matter – Title 18, U.S. Code, Sections 1546(a) and 2, which carries a max penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
This included smuggling an alien through the San Ysidro port of entry and fraudulently obtaining public benefits such as Medi-Cal and CalFresh.
U.S. District Judge Barry T. Moskowitz ordered Sanchez to pay $8,690.69 in restitution to J.D.S., Medi-Cal, and the California Department of Social Services.
According to the indictment, Luis Enrique Villegas Brownell, a Mexican citizen without legal status in the United States, and Sanchez, a U.S. citizen, conspired to steal identification documents belonging to Sanchez’s brother, identified in court records as J.D.S. Villegas then used those documents to falsely pose as a U.S. citizen and apply for entry into the United States.
Once in the United States, Villegas and Sanchez went to the California DMV and, under penalty of perjury, provided false information to obtain a state ID card in the name of J.D.S. but bearing Villegas’s photo and thumbprint. He and Sanchez then used the fraudulent ID to impersonate J.D.S. and cross the border unlawfully for more than a year. They crossed together into the United States from Mexico more than 50 times in 17 months, often with Sanchez driving to the port of entry and presenting the fraudulent ID to border officers. Port-of-entry video shows Sanchez lying to officers about Villegas’s birthplace and concealing his true identity.
According to the United States’ sentencing memorandum, during a border crossing on May 21, 2025, Sanchez falsely told a border officer that her front seat passenger, Villegas, does not really talk and offered to show the officer his U.S. birth certificate to prove he was born in the United States. Moments later, Sanchez handed her cell phone to the officer, displaying an image of J.D.S.’s birth certificate.
Sanchez committed the offense while on supervised release for a prior federal conviction in the Southern District of California relating to an arrest for smuggling methamphetamine into the United States. According to the United States’ sentencing memorandum, the port-of-entry video from the May 21, 2025 crossing captured Sanchez admitting to the border officer that she knew she had been on probation for more than a year. She described her mindset regarding her probation as “chill.”
Court documents say that the real J.D.S. applied for entry to the United States at the San Ysidro port of entry in April 2025 but was unable to cross due to the theft of his identity. During that encounter, J.D.S. reported to border officers that his sister, Sanchez, asked for his identity documents to smuggle her Mexican boyfriend into the United States. When he declined, she took them without his consent. According to court records, J.D.S. has lost work and money as a result of the offense and now has a felony alien smuggling arrest committed by Villegas associated with his name.
“The defendants thought a stolen identity was a ticket to a new life. Turns out it was a ticket to prison,” said U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon.
“Identity theft and benefits fraud are serious crimes that undermine public trust and victimize innocent people, including U.S. citizens whose documents are misused,” said Kevin Murphy, acting Special Agent in Charge of HSI San Diego. “This case demonstrates our commitment to working with our law enforcement partners to identify, investigate, and hold accountable those who abuse identity documents and benefits systems for personal gain.”
Villegas pleaded guilty to charges of false personation, false claim to U.S. citizenship, and aggravated identity theft in 25-cr-3286-BTM-1. Villegas is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Barry T. Moskowitz for sentencing on October 1, 2026.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick C. Swan.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
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