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Alexandria Woman Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Gaining U.S. Citizenship Under False Name
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Lady Jacqueline Locotin, a/k/a Joyce Amene Obese, 44, an immigrant from Ghana residing in Alexandria, Va., was sentenced today to 18 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for unlawfully procuring U.S. citizenship under a false identity.
United States District Court Judge Leonie M. Brinkema also entered an order holding that Locotin’s naturalization was void and that she is no longer considered a U.S. citizen. Following her prison term, Locotin will be transferred to the custody of U.S. immigration authorities for removal proceedings.
Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Henry Lucero, Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Washington Field Office; and Earl Cook, Alexandria Chief of Police, made the announcement after sentencing.
Locotin was convicted by a federal jury on Nov. 17, 2011, of unlawfully procuring naturalization, two counts of passport fraud, and the misuse of a Social Security number.
According to court records and evidence at trial, Locotin first entered the United States in March 1992 under a false name and travel documents and requested political asylum. While in the United States awaiting an immigration hearing, Locotin applied for and received a Social Security number using the name and identification documents of Lady Jacqueline Locotin. She failed to appear for her immigration hearing in October 1993 and was ordered excluded from the United States. She had a child in 1996 while still in the United States but left voluntarily sometime between the birth of her child and March 1997 while an order of exclusion was outstanding.
In March 1997, Locotin received a visa to enter the United States under the name of Joyce Amene Obese as the dependent spouse of a Diversity visa lottery winner. In her application, she failed to report her previous stay in the United States nor the child born in 1996 while she was under an order of removal. She used the fraudulent identity to enter the United States, obtain a U.S. passport and become a naturalized U.S. citizen under the Obese alias.
She was arrested after the Alexandria Police Department located Locotin hiding in the closet of her Alexandria home on June 7, 2011. Examination of photographs and fingerprint evidence verified that Locotin and Obese were the same individual.
This case was investigated by ICE ERO and the Alexandria Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Ronald L. Walutes Jr. and Special Assistant United States Attorney Michael J. Frank are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.