Man avoids jail by faking illegal immigrant status

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A Utah man hatched a creative scheme to avoid going to prison on a drug charge: He lied to authorities and said he was an illegal immigrant so he could get deported to Mexico and evade time behind bars.

The jig was up, however, when 27-year-old Jaime Alvarado returned to the U.S. using his passport and was arrested again by Salt Lake City police.

The tactic exploited a system in which law enforcement officials sometimes prefer deporting illegal immigrant offenders instead of adding to an already overloaded prison system.

At the time of his initial arrest, Alvarado claimed he was Saul Quiroz and had emigrated from Mexico illegally. He is actually an American citizen.

On Feb. 3, he admitted that he lied about his identity because he was afraid of leaving his daughters with an imprisoned father. He requested leniency for the crime he pleaded guilty to prior to his deportation - a second-degree felony for possession of cocaine and heroin with the intent to distribute - that carried a prison term of up to 15 years.

"I have a good job right now, a lot of little girls waiting for me and a family that will support me," Alvarado said in a letter to the judge. "It's my first offense and my last. I want to spend the rest of my life with my kids!"