8-year sentence for felon
Illegal alien hits 'grand slam of criminal activity'
An illegal alien with a criminal record in the United States stretching back 20 years was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court to eight years in prison.
Tomas Daniel Ramirez, 44, was also ordered to pay almost $18,000 in restitution.
A resident of Polson but a native of El Salvador, Ramirez pleaded guilty to federal education-assistance fraud, aggravated identity theft, perjury and re-entry of a deported alien.
"Although we charge as felons any individual who is in the country illegally having been deported on one or more occasions, the extent of this defendant's illegal conduct while remaining in the country without the legal authority to do so is truly noteworthy," U.S. District Attorney Bill Mercer said.
Ramirez has been associated with five different dates of birth, five Social Security numbers and 35 aliases, all of which allowed him to elude detection as an illegal alien while compiling an extensive criminal record and defrauding public-assistance programs.
"Besides being in this country illegally, it appears that he was both a sort of career criminal and a guy sponging off federal-assistance programs for which he has no eligibility," said Mercer. "He's kind of the grand slam of criminal activity."
Sometime before August 1987, Ramirez entered the country illegally. He was deported in 1987 after being convicted of burglary and theft in Napa County, California.
He re-entered the country illegally sometime before 1989, the year he was arrested in Portland, Ore., for drug possession and later convicted for drug trafficking, under the alias Dennis Golcoechea Gonzales.
No connection was made between the Ramirez who had been previously deported and his alias, Dennis Golcoechea Gonzales, because immigration officials did not share his fingerprints with the FBI.
At that time, there was no coordination between law enforcement and administrative immigration computer systems, according to court documents.
Between 1989 and 1995, Ramirez was arrested several more times using the alias Dennis Golcoechea Gonzales. In 1995 he was arrested for theft in Washington County, Ore., using the alias Dennis G. Gonzales.
Between August 2000 and March 2006, Ramirez was arrested on 10 different occasions, again using the alias Dennis Gonzales. Charges included eluding a police officer, obstructing a police officer, contempt of court, drug possession, three DUIs and resisting arrest.
IN MARCH 2004, Ramirez applied for public assistance, specifically food stamps, in Polson using the name Pedro A. Rivera. He and his common law wife were denied after officials discovered they lied about receiving food stamps in Oregon.
After an aborted attempt to apply for benefits under the name Dennis Gonzales, the couple tried again in July 2005 under the name Pedro Rivera and received benefits until at least June 2006. During that time, Ramirez defrauded the state out of $2,783 in benefits for which he wasn't eligible.
In December 2004, Ramirez, using the name Pedro Rivera, applied for federal education assistance to attend Salish Kootenai College. He was given $7,350 in federal student loans and Pell grants and $3,930 in Montana Vocational Rehabilitation student aid.
He had applied for these same benefits at the same college a year earlier, but used the name Pedro Rivera de Jesus.
Then in 2005, a financial-aid officer at Caribbean University in Puerto Rico attempted to help a student named Pedro Rivera complete and submit an application for student aid, only to find somebody by the same name was already receiving benefits through a college in Montana.
An eight-month investigation into the alleged identity theft ensued. Officials determined that Ramirez may have stolen Pedro Rivera's identity as early as 1993.
The real Rivera was able to provide agents with copies of his Social Security card, birth certificate, high-school diploma, baptism certificate, driver's license, and U.S. passport. A look at his credit report revealed several unfamiliar accounts.
An investigation into Ramirez's use of the name Pedro Rivera revealed a number of aliases, identical addresses, fingerprints and identification photos for the Montana Pedro Rivera and the man known as Dennis Gonzales, and fake and appropriated Social Security numbers.
Prosecutors suspect Ramirez assumed the Pedro Rivera's identity in an attempt to leave behind the considerable criminal record he accumulated with the alias Dennis Gonzales.
Prosecutors, who originally indicted Ramirez under the name Dennis Gonzales, didn't know their suspect's true identity until a Lake County witness came forward and told authorities where to find Ramirez's real birth certificate.
Ramirez reportedly told the woman it was in a manila envelope in a black suitcase, and asked that she mail it to his mother in case something happened to him.
A search warrant was issued for Ramirez's Polson residence in January 2007, where investigators found an original birth certificate indicating their suspect's real name was Tomas Daniel Ramirez and that he was born in El Salvador.
After Ramirez is released from prison, he will be immediately deported, Mercer said.
Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com