Judge Sentences Illegal Immigrant Officer to Probation
A federal judge on Monday sentenced a former Milwaukee Police Officer to a year probation for being an illegal immigrant. Oscar Ayala-Cornejo already faces deportation and the judge noted that with Ayala-Cornejo's record of service to the community, deportation will be a significant punishment.
Ayala-Cornejo says he wasn't told that he was in the U.S. illegally until he was 15, six years after he came here. Ayala-Cornejo's family offered him his dead cousin's identity so that he could stay in the country and become a police officer, like he wanted.
Ayala-Cornejo explained, "We did this whole thing to begin with so I could be with my family, and for me to be stripped away from my family like this, that's what hurts the most."
Ayala-Cornejo says he took the identity and joined the police force to make a difference. An anonymous tip outed him.
His brother Alex was also an Milwaukee officer, but was fired for keeping his brother's identity a secret.
Ayala-Cornejo could have faced up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Ayala did not fight deportation. He has said he plans to live with family in Mexico and study computer engineering.
Ayala apologized to his family, friends, the community and the police department.
"It was never my intention to do any harm to anybody," he told the judge.
Both Ayala's defense attorney and prosecutor told the judge that Ayala was family oriented, a decent person who made a mistake and had accepted responsibility for what he had done.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Ayala said his father helped him change his identity to Jose Morales, his cousin who died as a child of stomach cancer.
He told his father he wanted to become a police officer in high school after officers from the department came to the school to recruit for the police aide program.
The family moved from Guadalajara, Mexico in 1992 and their first neighborhood was rough. They lived next to a crack house, often heard gunshots and had their home burglarized.
"I wanted to change my neighborhood, to change other people's neighborhoods, so they could feel safe, you know," Ayala said recently. "Because I didn't feel safe. I was pretty passionate about that."
His sister was married to a citizen, his brother was born in the U.S., and his parents were on their way to becoming permanent residents. He would have had to go back to Mexico when he became an adult to wait 10 years or more to become a citizen and his father didn't want to separate the family.
Before his junior year in 1999, Ayala switched high schools, cut his hair, replaced his glasses with contacts, got braces and became more outgoing. He says he became a different person, along with a different name.
His father died of leukemia in 2004, before he could see his son become a police officer.
Ayala doesn't hold his father responsible.
"The cards that we were dealt just weren't the best ones," he has said. "If I wouldn't have done this, I would still be in Mexico waiting to see if I could ever see my family."
His 26-year-old brother, Alex, was fired from the department in September for withholding information about his brother. He's appealing.
The Associated Press Contributed to This Report
0 COMMENTS
ADD A COMMENT