Attempt to get driver’s license ends with man’s deportation

By EVE BYRON - IR Staff Writer - 03/09/07
An illegal immigrant who was in the United States for 12 years was put on the road back to Mexico Thursday for using a fake Social Security number to try to secure a driver’s license in Montana.

Alan Rodriguez Vargas, 30, illegally entered the U.S. in 1994, and most recently worked as a cook at Denny’s in Billings. He had used the fake Social Security number while he was here, which allowed him to work and support his family.

“I know what I did was wrong and I apologize for it,” Vargas told U.S. District Court Senior Judge Charles Lovell.

Vargas’ undoing was his attempt to use the Social Security number on an application to obtain a driver’s license in August 2002. A review of Department of Homeland Security records showed that Vargas is a citizen of Mexico and did not have permission to work in the United States.

The judge sentenced Vargas to the 133 days behind bars that he already served, and remanded him to the custody of Homeland Security agents. Deportation arrangements are expected to be under way soon.

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