A Dominican man authorities say removed his own fingerprints in an effort to hide his identity has pleaded guilty to re-entering the U.S. illegally following his deportation.
Robert Cordero-Luciano was ordered held at a hearing Wednesday in Rhode Island pending sentencing in March. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison followed by deportation.
Prosecutors say the 26-year-old man was arrested last summer when he tried to get to a Rhode Island driver's license using forged documents. Police noticed his fingerprints had been "mutilated."
Using facial recognition technology, police determined Cordero-Luciano had acquired four different Massachusetts driver's licenses under different names and Social Security numbers. He was deported in 2006 after serving time on a drug conviction, but returned to the U.S. about two months later.
Source: Boston.com
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Dominican Watchdog note:
Cordero-Luciano had been arrested in Fall River in May 2005, was convicted on drug charges and did prison time before he was deported to the Dominican Republic in October 2006. The police say Cordero-Luciano reentered the United States about two months later after paying a human smuggler $5,000 to get him across the Mexican border.
More than 20,000 Dominicans has been deported from the US in the last 10 years. How many has re-entered United States?
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