Brazilian National Sentenced for Unlawful Reentry and Selling Green Cards and Counterfeit Social Security Cards

U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts

BOSTON – A Brazilian national unlawfully residing in Woburn, Mass. was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for unlawfully reentering the United States after deportation as well as selling fraudulent Social Security cards and Legal Permanent Resident cards, often referred to as “Green Cards.”  

Liene Tavares DeBarros, Jr., 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to five months in prison to be followed by two years of supervised release. The defendant is subject to deportation upon completion of the imposed sentence. In May 2025, Tavares DeBarros pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful transfer of a document or authentication feature and one count of unlawful reentry of a deported alien. Tavares DeBarros was arrested and charged by criminal complaint in March 2025.

Tavares DeBarros was previously deported from the United States in July 2010. Sometime after his removal, Tavares DeBarros unlawfully reentered the United States. 

In mid-2024, law enforcement was notified that Tavares DeBarros was selling counterfeit identity documents. As part of the investigation, law enforcement contacted the defendant in an undercover capacity requesting his services. Subsequently, in October 2024, Tavares DeBarros sold a counterfeit Social Security Number Card and a Green Card to an undercover officer in exchange for $250. Later, in December 2024, Tavares DeBarros sold two more counterfeit Social Security cards and two Green Cards to another undercover officer in exchange for $500. In addition, before his arrest, DeBarros agreed to sell an additional three sets of identification documents. During a search of his home, three Social Security cards, as well as a false set of documents for DeBarros himself, were located.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Michael J. Krol Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England; Amy Connelly, Special Agent in Charge of the Social Security Administration, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, Boston Field Division; Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, Labor Racketeering and Fraud, Northeast Region; and Patricia H. Hyde, Field Office Director, Boston, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Reynolds III of the Criminal Division prosecuted the case.

The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigation’s Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force, a specialized investigative group comprising personnel from various state, local, and federal agencies with expertise in detecting, deterring, and disrupting organizations and individuals involved in various types of document, identity and benefit fraud schemes.

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