Texas – Cristo Jesus de Nasareth is scheduled to appear in federal court in the United States on April 22 after a Texas magistrate judge ordered him held without bond on immigration and weapons and ammunition charges.
Jesus, as he is referred to in court documents, was apprehended by members of the US Border Patrol horse unit on April 14 while walking along Farm to Market Road 170 near Presidio, Texas.
Border agents noticed the man’s muddy, worn-down clothes and approached him to conduct an immigration check. The location just north of the Rio Grande is not a designated port of entry and is known to border agents as a migrant smuggling route.
Jesus, also known as Christo Raba-de Ravino, allegedly admitted to illegally crossing the river from Mexico into the United States and not being a US citizen.
The agents got off their horses and patted down the man. A Smith & Wesson pistol of unknown caliber was discovered under multiple layers of clothing, according to a complaint affidavit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
“The defendant admitted to taking possession of the handgun in Mexico and crossing the United States-Mexico border with the handgun,” Border Patrol Prosecutions Agent Seth Davison wrote in the affidavit.
After further questioning, Jesus revealed that he was a Mexican citizen. He was detained for three days before being summoned to a federal courtroom in Alpine, Texas, to face charges of unlawfully entering the United States and possessing a firearm and ammunition.
He was appointed a public defender after stating that he could not afford an attorney. He is being held without bond and has a detention hearing set for Tuesday.
On Good Friday, Border Report attempted to contact the federal Public Defender’s Office in Alpine to confirm Jesus’ name but received no response.
A federal official in El Paso told Border Report that it is not uncommon for migrants to provide a false identity when apprehended by border agents. “Motivation varies for concealing identity, the most common is having a prior illegal entry or being wanted for a previous crime or infraction,” the official added.
Years ago, before most migrants were fingerprinted or had other biometric information recorded on a computer, it was not uncommon for people to state the names of famous people like Mexican singers Vicente Fernandez or Juan Gabriel, according to former El Paso and Tucson Border Patrol Chief Victor M. Manjarrez Jr.
“It still happens, but they use more modern names,” Manjarrez explained. “You might hear the name of an actor like Mario Moreno, ‘Cantiflas.'” The agent would begin to write it down, and another agent would say, ‘Hey, man, that is not his real name.