By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
AT a change-of-plea hearing Friday in the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, Lorna R. Maramba pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a false identification document with intent to defraud the United States.
Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona found Maramba fully competent to enter a knowing and voluntary plea.
Maramba was represented by court-appointed attorney Richard Miller while Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric O’Malley appeared for the federal government.
Judge Manglona granted the defense’s request to waive the 25-day requirement and scheduled sentencing for March 4 at 1:30 p.m. She also vacated the jury trial previously set for April 21 and ordered the amended plea agreement unsealed.
According to the plea agreement, Maramba admitted knowingly possessing a fraudulent identification document and intending to use it to defraud the United States.
Factual basis
Maramba is a citizen of the Philippines and was in the United States (CNMI) on or about Jan. 20, 2026, without valid legal immigration status.
On or about that date, she possessed a document purporting to be an I-551 U.S. permanent resident card.
She knew the document was fraudulent.
She intended to use the document to travel by air from Saipan to Hawaii by presenting it to U.S. government officials as proof of lawful status.
Time served
The prosecution agreed to recommend a sentence of time served.
The agreement also states that by pleading guilty, Maramba acknowledges potential immigration consequences because she is not a U.S. citizen.
Maramba appeared in court on Feb. 13 while in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security.
Authorities earlier accused her of attempting to travel from Saipan to Hawaii using two falsified U.S. permanent resident cards. According to a federal complaint, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers reported that she presented the two fraudulent cards during an outbound inspection at Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport on Jan. 21.
She was formally charged and arrested Jan. 27 and appeared before Judge Manglona the following day for her initial hearing while in U.S. Marshals Service custody.
According to an affidavit filed by Homeland Security Investigations, Maramba initially claimed she was a lawful permanent resident and presented two laminated cards — one black-and-white and one in color — each containing different biographical information, mismatched USCIS numbers, and distorted or blurred images. Record checks showed she had no legal immigration status and had overstayed her last CNMI-Only Transitional Worker (CW-1) visa, which expired in 2020.
Investigators said Maramba later admitted the cards were fake and told them she paid $2,000 to a man she met on Facebook who claimed to be a U.S. immigration officer. She said she hoped to reach Hawaii to find work and acknowledged she was unlawfully present in the CNMI.
Maramba also told investigators she is an accountant and had previously prepared her own CW-1 applications. She said she sought employment in Hawaii because of limited job opportunities on Saipan.
Bryan Manabat was a liberal arts student of Northern Marianas College where he also studied criminal justice. He is the recipient of the NMI Humanities Award as an Outstanding Teacher (Non-Classroom) in 2013, and has worked for the CNMI Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program as lead facilitator.
