German Madrigal, Passport Fraud, Georgia 2025

A Mexican national, German Madrigal, has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison following his conviction at trial for falsely claiming that he was a U.S. citizen in an application for a U.S. passport.

GAINESVILLE, Ga. - Madrigal, 49, of Jalisco, Mexico, was handed down the sentence by United States District Judge Steve C. Jones on July 29, 2025, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release.

According to U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg, Madrigal lied about his foreign citizenship and used a fake birth certificate to try to obtain a U.S. passport in an application submitted on December 9, 2021, at a Gainesville post office. He posed as a U.S. citizen by presenting a Georgia driver’s license and a fraudulently obtained California birth record.

Madrigal’s parents obtained the fake birth record to hide Madrigal’s lack of American citizenship. He had used the same document in 2010 to evade deportation proceedings.

Madrigal was born in Jalisco, Mexico in 1976. He and his parents crossed into the United States illegally the following year. In the 1990s, Madrigal and his family relocated to Hall County, Georgia, where Madrigal was later arrested for statutory rape and multiple drug trafficking offenses. At the time of those arrests, Madrigal reported Jalisco, Mexico as his place of birth.

Madrigal was convicted of passport fraud on April 29, 2025, following a two-day jury trial. The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service. Assistant United States Attorney Brian Pearce prosecuted the case.

The U.S. passport is the most coveted travel document in the world, and foreign nationals who attempt to fraudulently acquire U.S. passports to carry out criminal activities, including terrorism, inside our borders. These crimes threaten the national security of the United States.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga/pr/mexican-man-sentenced-falsely-claiming-us-citizenship-passport-application