Federal agents on Friday arrested a Mexican national accused of repeatedly misrepresenting her citizenship status to obtain and retain work at an aerospace manufacturer that also serves the US military.
Alma Patricia Contreras Villafana, 54, of South Los Angeles, was detained by Homeland Security officers at Howmet Aerospace’s Torrance facility, where she had been employed as a machinist. Howmet Aerospace produces components for the aviation and defense sectors.
Authorities said the arrest followed a more than two-hour standoff at the factory. Investigators allege that Contreras Villafana was alerted to the agents’ arrival, left her work area and hid inside a conference room while company officials declined to allow officers into the building.
She was taken into custody in handcuffs after eventually coming out of the room, officials said.
Contreras Villafana faces five wire fraud counts, along with charges of using a false and forged naturalization certificate, aggravated identity theft and falsely claiming US citizenship.
Federal immigration records indicate that Contreras Villafana had previously been ordered to leave the United States.
“It’s alarming that an illegal immigrant who ignored a decades-old removal order was allowed to work for 30 years at a company involved with our nation’s military,” Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli, said.
“It’s also a sign of how lax things were in terms of enforcing immigration laws that Congress passed decades ago. Those days are over. We will not allow our national security to be jeopardized in this manner again.”
According to court documents, Contreras Villafana obtained a position with a Howmet subsidiary in 1996 after stating on a Form I-9 that she was a US citizen. An immigration judge later ordered her removed from the country in 2003, the filings state.
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Court papers further allege that she submitted a new I-9 form this year to continue working for Howmet, again claiming US citizenship and providing a naturalization certificate number assigned to someone else.
Over the three decades she worked at Howmet and its subsidiary, she was paid at least $1,402,459, prosecutors said.
If convicted, Contreras Villafana faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count, up to 10 years in prison for use of a false and forged certificate of naturalization, up to three years for falsely claiming US citizenship, and a mandatory two-year consecutive prison sentence for aggravated identity theft.
Homeland Security Investigations is probing the case.
Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Howmet is a major manufacturer of components for jet engines and titanium structures used in aerospace, as well as fasteners and forged aluminum wheels for heavy trucks. It’s publicly traded and has more than two dozen factories around the world.
The company does a high volume of business with the US military. In 2024, its Pittsburgh headquarters was targeted by anti-Israel protestors for selling parts to Lockhheed Martin for jets that were used by Israeli forces.
Howmet manufactures parts for jet engines and aircraft including titanium components used in Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II fighter jet, which the U.S. has sold to allies worldwide, including Israel.
A representative for Howmet did not immediately respond to a request for comment.