Illegal immigrant set to be deported
Patrick Springer, The Forum
Published Thursday, May 10, 2007

Five years of invisibility came to an end for Gerson Nahum Melendez-Rodriguez when he stepped off a Greyhound bus in downtown Fargo 18 days ago.

That was the day the 25-year-old Honduran laborer was spotted by U.S. Border Patrol agents during routine checks at the bus depot.

The agents asked for Melendez-Rodriquez’s papers. He handed them over.

The false immigration document was crude, bought for $80 from a forger in Atlanta, where Melendez-Rodriguez had spent much of the past five years, working as an illegal alien.

Suspicious, the agents checked the number on the registration card; it belonged to someone else.

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In an appearance Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Fargo, Melendez-Rodriguez pleaded guilty to possession of false immigration papers, a felony.

Before accepting his plea, the judge asked why he came to the United States.

“Because my family is very poor,â€