Leah B. Foley United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts | Department of Justice
A Brazilian national residing unlawfully in Woburn, Massachusetts, was sentenced in federal court for reentering the United States illegally and selling counterfeit Social Security and Green Cards. Liene Tavares DeBarros, Jr., aged 40, received a five-month prison sentence followed by two years of supervised release from U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper. Following his sentence, he faces deportation.
In May 2025, Tavares DeBarros pleaded guilty to charges including unlawful transfer of documents and unlawful reentry after deportation. He was initially arrested in March 2025 after law enforcement learned of his activities involving counterfeit identity documents.
Tavares DeBarros had been deported from the U.S. in July 2010 but returned unlawfully at a later date. In mid-2024, authorities were alerted to his sale of fake identification documents. Undercover officers purchased these documents from him on two occasions: once in October 2024 for $250 and again in December 2024 for $500. Before his arrest, he also agreed to sell additional sets of false identification documents.
During a search of Tavares DeBarros's residence, law enforcement found three Social Security cards and falsified personal documents belonging to him.
The announcement was made by 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's Office of Inspector General; Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent in Charge at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General; and Patricia H. Hyde from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Reynolds III prosecuted the case with an investigation led by Homeland Security Investigation’s Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force—an interagency group targeting document fraud schemes.
