Convicted Child Rapist Sentenced For Naturalization Fraud

RALEIGH – Wednesday in federal court, Cruz Miguel Aguina, 40, of Benson was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle to eight months in prison following a guilty plea to immigration fraud. Moreover, Aguina was judicially denaturalized as a U.S. citizen.

According to federal court records, on July 3, 2019, Aguina fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship by making materially false statements under oath regarding his naturalization application. In response to the question “Were you EVER involved in any way with any of the following:…Forcing, or trying to force, someone to have any kind of sexual contact or relations?” he answered “No.” Also, in response to the question “Have you ever committed, assisted in committing, or attempted to commit, a crime or offense for which you were not arrested?” he answered “No.”

Aguina was arrested in May 2020 by the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office after a juvenile victim came forward and told officers she had been sexually assaulted and raped several times.

On June 16, 2022, in Johnston County Superior Court, Aguina was convicted of statutory rape of a child. He was sentenced to serve between 240 and 348 months in state prison, ordered to register as a sex offender. According to a transcript of the plea and judgment issued by the court, Aguina confessed to having committed the crime from January 1, 2019, through December 30, 2019. Therefore, the offense was ongoing at the time he made the false statements for his naturalization application.

Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement. Agents with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations and Homeland Security Investigations, assigned to the Document Benefit Fraud Task Force, investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sebastian Kielmanovich prosecuted the case.