(Not a drag queen) Texas man sentenced for sex with minor with whom he fathered two children
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A federal judge didn’t buy a Texas man’s claim he was the lawful common-law partner of a 12-year-old girl with whom he fathered two children in Mexico.
On Thursday, Chief U.S. District Judge Alia Moses sentenced David Manuel Garcia, 42, to 15 years and eight months in prison for engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor in a foreign country.
Garcia came under the radar of U.S. authorities a little over six years ago when he filed applications for consular reports of birth abroad for his Mexican-born son and daughter. That’s a cornerstone of the process by which an American procures U.S. citizenship for his or her children born abroad.
The problem was the mother’s age – reported in the application as 21 and 23 years old for each birth – did not match her birth records. U.S. authorities eventually determined that the mother was 13 and 15 years old when she gave birth.
Garcia was arrested on Dec. 11, 2018, at the U.S. port of entry in Eagle Pass, Texas. A lengthy legal battle ensued during the next four years as the defendant claimed he had become a Mexican resident and that his actions weren’t criminal under the law of Coahuila, Mexico.
Defendant tried to use Mexican law as shield
In documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Garcia claimed he and the victim were a “legitimate familial unit” because the girl’s father consented to him and the 12-year-old girl to live together. He claimed the children were born under Mexico’s union libre status – concubinage or a form of common law marriage.
https://www.borderreport.com/immigration/border-crime/texas-man-sentenced-for-sex-with-minor-with-whom-he-fathered-two-children/
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