Cop Who Lied About Citizenship Deported

He's banned from the U.S. for life after assuming his cousin's identity.

ByABC News
December 23, 2007, 10:40 PM

Dec. 23, 2007— -- To his colleagues, he is a loyal and upstanding civil servant who helped make his neighborhood a safer place.

To the Immigration Department, he is an illegal immigrant who assumed another citizen's identity a crime that demands deportation from the United States.

Police officer Oscar Ayala-Cornejo was arrested May 31, 2007, on the charge of falsely representing himself as an American citizen. He was deported Sunday morning to Guadalajara, Mexico, and is banned from the U.S. for life.

Ayala-Cornejo and his family moved from Guadalajara when he was nine. They rented a basement apartment in the south side of Milwaukee, next door to a crack house. Multiple shootings occurred in the area while they were there, and once, their small basement room was robbed. Ayala-Cornejo and his brother and sister were never allowed to play alone outside.

He saw, firsthand, the effect crime has on families. At 15, he decided to become a police officer.

When he announced that he wanted to enroll in a police apprenticeship program, his father finally told him the truth. His parents had brought him to the U.S. illegally, so Ayala-Cornejo could never be a police officer. It was unlikely he could even go to college.

His father was determined to find a solution and he did. Ayala-Cornejo would adopt the identity of his cousin's son, Jose Morales, who was an American citizen, but had died of leukemia in Mexico.

"His cousin believed it was a way for some good to come of his son's passing, and a way of keeping the memory of his son alive," explained Darryl Morin, the family's spokesperson, and special project coordinator for the League of Latin American Citizens.

Because his older brother was born in the U.S., and was a citizen, Ayala-Cornejo could have become a citizen legally. But it would have meant leaving the U.S. and waiting at least 14 years for the documentation to be authorized and completed.

Ayala-Cornejo did not want to wait. So, at 16, he changed high schools and became Jose Morales, calling his parents his aunt and uncle. He made excellent grades and was given top cadet honors in his Junior ROTC program. He later said it was especially difficult on graduation day, lying to teachers about his relationship with his parents.