Utah man fakes illegal status to beat jail

SALT LAKE CITY -- 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.

The jig was up, however, when Jaime Alvarado, who is an American citizen, returned to the United States 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 in 2010, Alvarado, 27, claimed he was Saul Quiroz and had emigrated from Mexico illegally.

On Feb. 3, he admitted to a judge that he had lied about his identity and requested leniency for the crime he had pleaded guilty to before 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. He was released in June.

But Wednesday, prosecutors charged Alvarado with an additional felony and a misdemeanor for lying about his identity, and a $50,000 warrant has been issued for his arrest. -- AP