Exclusive | Illegal migrant faked US citizenship to work at militrary contractor for 30 years

Federal authorities arrested an illegal migrant Friday for repeatedly lying about her citizenship to land a job at an aerospace manufacturer and US military contractor.

Mexican national Alma Patricia Contreras Villafana, 54, of South Los Angeles, was taken into custody by Homeland Security officers after a standoff at the Torrance factory operated by Howmet Aerospace, where she worked as a machinist.

Prior to her arrest, she refused to come of the building for more than two hours as company officials refused to let agents inside. Investigators said Contreras Villafana was initially tipped off to the presence of law enforcement and left her workstation to hide in a conference room.

When she finally emerged, agents placed in her handcuffs.

She is charged with five counts of wire fraud, one count of use of a false and forged certificate of naturalization, one count of aggravated identity theft, and one count of false claim to United States citizenship.

Immigration records show Contreras Villafana was previously ordered to leave the US.

“It’s alarming that an illegal immigrant who ignored a decades-old removal order was allowed to work for 30 years at a company involved with our nation’s military,” said Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli.

“It’s also a sign of how lax things were in terms of enforcing immigration laws that Congress passed decades ago. Those days are over. We will not allow our national security to be jeopardized in this manner again.”

Court papers say Contreras Villafana first secured employment at a Howmet subsidiary in 1996 by attesting on her Form I-9 that she was a US citizen. In fact, she had been ordered to leave the country by an immigration judge in 2003.

Contreras Villafana submitted another I-9 this year falsely stating she was a US citizen to keep her job at Howmet, providing a certificate of naturalization number that belonged to another person, according to court papers.

Over the three decades she worked at Howmet and its subsidiary, she was paid at least $1,402,459, prosecutors said.

If convicted, Contreras Villafana faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count, up to 10 years in prison for use of a false and forged certificate of naturalization, up to three years for falsely claiming US citizenship, and a mandatory two-year consecutive prison sentence for aggravated identity theft.

Homeland Security Investigations is probing the case.

Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Howmet is a major manufacturer of components for jet engines and titanium structures used in aerospace, as well as fasteners and forged aluminum wheels for heavy trucks. It’s publicly traded and has more than two dozen factories around the world.

The company does a high volume of business with the US military. In 2024, its Pittsburgh headquarters was targeted by anti-Israel protestors for selling parts to Lockhheed Martin for jets that were used by Israeli forces.  

Howmet manufactures parts for jet engines and aircraft including titanium components used in Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II fighter jet, which the U.S. has sold to allies worldwide, including Israel.

A representative for Howmet did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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