A San Ysidro man was sentenced to over five years in prison on Thursday for impersonating a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and defrauding over two dozen people, many of whom were undocumented immigrants seeking green cards and US citizenship.
Davyd George Brand Jimenez, 55, pleaded guilty in April to ten counts of false impersonation of a federal officer or employee, two counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud, one count of possessing fraudulent seals of United States departments and agencies, and one count of aggravated identity theft.
In his guilty agreement, he admitted to misleading and scamming at least 25 people out of $152,476.
U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin adopted prosecutors’ and defense’s recommendations and ordered Brand to serve 41 months concurrently with a sentence he is currently serving for a drug conviction in the Southern District of California, followed by an additional two years in prison.
During the court, Brand, hands clasped behind his jail uniform, said he owed the most serious apology “to the people who lost out.”
“I apologize to them,” he stated.
In his plea deal, Brand stated that from April 2019 to at least April 2023, he fraudulently pretended to be an ICE agent in Orange County, telling his victims that he could assist them get work permits, permanent US residency, and US citizenship. He admitted to charging up to $20,000 per “customer.”
“Defendant’s offense conduct in posing as a federal officer and soliciting payments from victims is serious, and it undermined the federal government by suggesting that federal officers could be bribed for services,” Assistant US Attorney Kevin Y. Fu stated in his sentencing memo.
According to the plea bargain, Brand would meet his victims in public settings, such as a Santa Ana park, and show them a false ICE badge or a pistol. He stated in the plea that he falsely claimed to have formerly worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration, to be an attorney, or to be working with or at United States consulates.
According to the plea deal, despite collecting cash from victims, Brand never filed immigration petitions on their behalf. He acknowledged to forging immigration paperwork to give to victims and illegally adding a watermark with the Department of Homeland Security seal.
In one example, Brand admits to creating a stay of deportation for a victim by fraudulently checking off “GRANTED” on the application and including the name of the alleged ICE official who authorized the stay. In 2020, he emailed the victim a snapshot of a falsified deportation stay.
Brand acknowledged to providing a victim with official U.S. credentials, such as a Social Security card and passport, under a different name, allowing them to illegally live and work in the country. In a sentencing document, Brand’s federal public defender described him as a “ambitious and motivated father, husband, and son,” but also stated that his upbringing “was filled with addiction and extreme sexual and physical abuse and neglect, which drove him to use cocaine heavily throughout his life.”
“His untreated addiction and emotional trauma are his biggest obstacles and played a significant role in landing him here,” Hannah A. Bogen said in the memo. “Mr. Brand makes no excuses for his actions, and knows that he harmed many as a result of his choices.”
In his letter to the judge, Brand stated that he accepted full responsibility and was “very remorseful.”
“I spent a lifetime running from psychological hurt and damage, only to become a cause of it myself,” Brand stated. “It has taken me a while to write that last sentence, knowing the insurmountable pain and loss I have caused.”
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