U.S. man stranded in Mexico by alleged identity theft

LOS ANGELES, March 24 (UPI) -- A Los Angeles man said he has been stranded in Mexico for weeks after an identity thief apparently altered his personal information.

Carlos Montoya, who said he had been in Mexico for the pat year to receive treatment for epilepsy, said he never got around to getting a U.S. passport because he was always allowed to cross the border by presenting his California ID, Social Security card and birth certificate.

However, Montoya said border agents at the San Ysidro crossing refused to allow him to cross March 1 when they checked his fingerprints and someone else's information came up on the screen.

"Then all of a sudden it became a nightmare. The agents of Customs and Border Patrol accused him of being an impostor and told him, 'No this is not your ID,'" Montoya's attorney, Luis Carrillo, said Monday.

Carrillo said his client was jailed for three days by border agents and they pressured him to sign a false document that said he was born in Mexico under the false name Jose Francisco Garcia-Garcia.

"An agent tells him, 'Look if you invent a false name and you agree with what we tell you, you can go free,'" Carrillo said. "Under those kinds of pressure, being locked up for three days, facing ten years [in prison]... then he signs and agrees to whatever they were telling him."

Carrillo said he is asking the U.S. Inspector General to investigate allegations of coercion, incompetence and corruption.

"Now that somebody out there has his identity, he's paying for the other person's actions," Carrillo said. U.S. Consulate officials in Mexico said they are working to get Carrillo a passport, but the process could take months.