BALTIMORE — A former priest convicted of sexually abusing a child in Maryland for years lied to gain U.S. citizenship, federal prosecutors said following a judge’s order to remove him from the U.S.
Jorge Antonio Velez-Lopez, a Colombian citizen, arrived in the U.S. as a temporary religious worker in 2003 and was approved as a permanent resident in 2007, according to prosecutors
In March 2013, he wasn’t truthful in his application to become a U.S. citizen, including when he declared he never “committed a crime for which he had not been arrested,” prosecutors said.
Velez-Lopez was granted citizenship about two months later, on May 29, 2013, according to prosecutors.
However, in February 2020, authorities in Howard County, Maryland, arrested Velez-Lopez on sex offense charges stemming from child molestation that occurred more than a decade earlier, according to prosecutors.
Velez-Lopez pleaded guilty in May 2021 to sexually abusing a child “while serving as the child’s priest” in Maryland from June 2005 through June 2009, according to prosecutors.
He was a priest at Resurrection of Our Lord parish in Laurel, under the Archdiocese of Baltimore, when he was accused of molesting the girl, who reported the abuse in 2016, according to WMAR-TV.
At the time of his arrest in 2020, he was a priest for the Archdiocese of Alexandria, Louisiana, the outlet reported.
Now a federal judge in Alexandria has sentenced Velez-Lopez, 69, to one year in prison, with a credit for time served, on a charge of passport fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana said in a March 3 news release.
His federal public defender didn’t immediately return a request for comment from McClatchy News on March 4.
Velez-Lopez will be transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after he serves his federal sentence and state sentence in Maryland, according to prosecutors.
ICE will deport Velez-Lopez to Colombia, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Girl gave birth to priest’s son, report says
In Maryland, Velez-Lopez was sentenced to nine years in prison and had to register as a sex offender after he was convicted of sexually abusing the child from 2005 through 2009, prosecutors said.
Velez-Lopez was one of 146 individuals named in an investigative report on sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, published by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office in 2023, WMAR-TV reported.
The 463-page report said the girl became pregnant with his son in 2010. “She said that the abuse and paternity were known to his superiors,” the report said.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore didn’t immediately return a request for comment from McClatchy News on March 4.
The girl gave birth when Velez-Lopez started serving as a priest in Alexandria, Louisiana, according to the report.
Citizenship revoked
Ahead of Velez’s sentencing on a charge of passport fraud, he was “judicially ordered removed from the United States,” prosecutors said.
His U.S. citizenship has been civilly revoked in federal court, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“This case sends a clear message to individuals who commit any type of sexual offense, particularly those involving children, during the naturalization process — we will ensure that justice is done,” Assistant Attorney General Yaakov M. Roth said in a statement.
If you have experienced sexual assault and need someone to talk to, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline for support at 1-800-656-4673 or visit the hotline’s online chatroom.
By JULIA MARNIN/McClatchy News
