For such a small state they sure have a lot of illegal immigration news.

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Immigrant gets prison for fraud
led model life till his false identity was exposed. He likely will face deportation after term is up.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
By SARAH CASSI
The Express-Times

EASTON | Mario Leonel Flores-Cabrera said he came to America from Guatemala for a better life and never wanted to hurt anyone.

For the past 10 years, Flores-Cabrera held a steady job, paid taxes, bought a home and raised a family, but he did it all with a stolen identity.

"He's been a law-abiding citizen, except he's an alien," Northampton County Judge Stephen Baratta said.

Baratta sentenced Flores-Cabrera on Tuesday to 10 to 20 months in county prison.

Flores-Cabrera was found guilty of two counts of identity theft, four counts of forgery and a single count of tampering with public records.

"I have sympathy, especially for your family," Baratta said. "Good luck in your future."

Police previously said Flores-Cabrera used his fake identity to get a job at Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Co. in Phillipsburg.

Flores-Cabrera, of the 1000 block of Washington Street, will be released to federal officials when he is finished serving his county sentence and most likely will be deported to Guatemala, Baratta said.

Defense attorney Christopher Shipman said Flores-Cabrera was a productive member of the community who got caught when he tried to apply for a passport in 1997 in Maryland using the name Javier Velez Roman.

A background check showed Roman had a drug conviction in Puerto Rico and did not match Flores-Cabrera's photo and physical description, a police report says. Flores-Cabrera was denied a passport.

Then in October 2006 Flores-Cabrera applied for a passport again, this time at the Easton Post Office. When agents with the State Department approached Flores-Cabrera, he told them he was an illegal, undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, court records show.

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