DOJ: Former Catholic priest convicted for sexual abuse of children will be deported by sentence

Washington, DC Newsroom, March 5, 2025 / 13:40 PM

A former Catholic priest who has been convicted of the sexual abuse of a minor will be deported back to the native country of Colombia, after serving his time in prison, According to a press release From the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

Jorge Antonio Velez-Lopez-which had no mission or faculties to work as a priest from 2010-to a guilty employee in 2021 that he sexually abused a minor for whom he had a temporary responsibility to supervise.

The abuse began in June 2005, when the victim was a teenager, and the sexual relationship continued until adulthood.

At that time, Velez-Lopez was the priest of the girl at St. John’s Evangelical Parish in Colombia, Maryland, According to the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The victim gave birth to the child of the former priest, and the two married in 2016, when he was 24 years old.

Velez-Lopez has been sentenced to nine years in prison, which he currently serves.

Although the former priest has been naturalized as the United States citizen in 2013, he has since been civilly distorted and has lost citizenship. A federal judge decided that he lied to his request because he stated that he had never committed a crime for which he was not arrested despite being committed to long -term sexual abuse.

American district judge Dee Drell sentenced Velez-Lopez to 12 months in prison for time for passport fraud and ordered to be eliminated from the United States.

“This case sends a clear message to people who commit any type of sexual crime, especially those involving children, during the naturalization process – we will make sure that justice is being done,” said Deputy Prosecutor of Interim Yaakov Roth in a statement.

According to Doj, when Velez-Lopez’s prison ends, he will be withdrawn in the custody of American immigration and customs application (ICE) and deported to Colombia.

“(Doj), Ice and the other partners of the federal law will use each instrument in our arsenal to protect children and follow the pursuit and request to deport those who fraudulently obtain US citizenship,” said the US interim lawyer, Alexander C. Van Hook, in a statement.

The criminal prosecution of Velez-Lopez for the passport fraud was part of False Haven’s operation, which is a national initiative to identify and prosecute children and other offenses that fraudulently obtain American citizenship.

President Donald Trump did mass deportations A main objective of the second term in office. He especially promised to target people who entered the country illegally and subsequently committed additional crimes while being present in the United States.

Tyler Arnold is a personnel reporter for the Catholic News Agency, based in the Washington Office of EWTN News. He has previously worked in the center of the center and was published in a variety of points of sale, including Associated Press, National Review, The American Conservative and The Federalist.