Benito Covarrubias Iniguez, an illegal alien from Mexico, living in Winder, appeared Monday in Gainesville before federal Magistrate Judge Anna W. Howard on federal charges of making a false claim of citizenship in order to vote after allegedly obtaining a fraudulent passport.
According to U.S. Attorney Hertzberg, the charges, and other information presented in court: In 2000, after entering the United States from Mexico, Iniquez fraudulently obtained a passport in the name of a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico. Using that fraudulent identity, he later obtained a Georgia driver’s license, registered to vote, and then voted in the November 5, 2024 general election.
Iniguez is the fourth alien charged since September with voting in federal elections in the Northern District of Georgia. Others included:
Pauline Lewis, 65, an alien residing in Dawsonville, who is alleged to have voted by absentee ballot in the November 5, 2024, January 5, 2021, and November 3, 2020 federal elections. Lewis is allegedly a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda who entered the United States on a student visa in 1979 and remained in the country but never applied to become a U.S. citizen.