A Peruvian-born registered sex offender who was living in South Florida has had his U.S. citizenship revoked after he obtained it by fraud, authorities said.
Renzo William Alegre, 25, had his citizenship revoked and Certificate of Naturalization canceled, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said Tuesday.
Alegre, who had been living in Fort Lauderdale, was also sentenced to 100 days of home detention and one year of probation after pleading guilty to unlawful procurement of citizenship or naturalization, prosecutors said.
Court records, on March 16, 2019, Alegre applied for U.S. citizenship in March of 2019, and when asked on the application whether he’d ever “committed, assisted in committing, or attempted to commit, a crime or offense for which you were NOT arrested” Alegre answered “no,” authorities said.
In October 2019, Alegre again denied committing a crime during an immigration interview, and he was granted citizenship on Oct. 31, 2019, officials said.
Less than a year later, in September 2020, Alegre was arrested on child pornography charges and he was later convicted of possessing at least 600 images of child sexual abuse material.
He was sentenced to 48 months in prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release.
Alegre later admitted he had been using a computer to receive and download the images for about a year before his arrest during a period that predated his naturalization, authorities said.
“United States citizenship is a privilege, not a shield for deception,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement. “This defendant lied to obtain citizenship while actively engaging in crimes that exploit children. When citizenship is procured by fraud, the law requires that it be revoked. Our Office will act decisively to protect children and to preserve the integrity of our immigration and naturalization system.”
