A Mexican national, German Madrigal, has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after being convicted of falsely claiming U.S. citizenship in a passport application submitted in Gainesville, Georgia.
According to court information, Madrigal was born in Jalisco, Mexico, in 1976 and entered the United States illegally with his parents as a child. The family later settled in Hall County, Georgia. Madrigal had previously reported Jalisco as his birthplace during arrests for statutory rape and drug trafficking offenses.
On December 9, 2021, Madrigal applied for a U.S. passport at a Gainesville post office using a Georgia driver’s license and a fraudulent California birth certificate. The fake birth record was obtained by his parents to conceal his true nationality and had also been used by Madrigal in 2010 to avoid deportation proceedings.
U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg stated: “Because Madrigal lied about his foreign citizenship and used a fake birth certificate to try to obtain a U.S. passport, his next trip will be to a federal prison. Madrigal’s sentence sends a message to those who would use fraudulent identity documents to conceal their nationality: you will be caught, prosecuted, and punished.”
Acting Director of Diplomatic Security Service Domestic Operations Gregory Batman commented: “The Diplomatic Security Service is committed to investigating and pursuing anyone who applies for or obtains a United States passport using false documents. The U.S. passport is the most coveted travel document in the world. There are 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.”
Madrigal was convicted on April 29, 2025, following a two-day jury trial. On July 29, 2025, United States District Judge Steve C. Jones sentenced him to prison followed by three years of supervised release.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Brian Pearce.
Further information about this case can be found at the website for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia: http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.
