NEW: Mexican driver in fatal wreck faces new charge — fake work papers

May 09--A Mexican man who was arrested last month for fleeing the scene of a fatal wreck faces a new charge, this one for falsifying work documents.

As a debate rages over immigration reform and border security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Victor Villanueva Rivera used a phony Social Security card and a bogus resident alien card when he applied for work at Gray's Ornamentals Inc., a nursery in suburban Delray Beach. In a criminal complaint, the U.S. Attorney's Office accused Villanueva Rivera of fraud.

That charge follows a traffic accident on April 30, when Villanueva Rivera was driving a pickup truck on Hypoluxo Road in Boynton Beach and hit a 21-year-old motorcyclist who died at the scene. In a detail that inflamed an already-raw debate over illegal immigration, Villanueva Rivera didn't stop but drove home.

Police found Villanueva Rivera by tracking a trail of fluid that leaked from a motorcycle part that lodged in Villanueva Rivera's truck. He told police that he fled because he's in the United States illegally.

Police haven't indicated that Villanueva Rivera was at fault in the accident, and one of his attorneys said in a May 2 court hearing that the motorcyclist was speeding.

A few days after Villanueva Rivera, 48, was arrested, an ICE deportation officer visited Villanueva Rivera's employer in suburban Delray Beach to inspect his job application. When Villanueva Rivera filled out an employment eligibility form in February 2015, he presented a Social Security card with his name but someone else's Social Security number, ICE said. The federal agency said his resident alien card also showed Villanueva Rivera's name but another person's number.

He's charged with the offense of "fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents."

In a court filing, Villanueva Rivera's federal public defender invoked his right to remain silent. The attorney declined to comment.

Since President Donald Trump's victory in the Nov. 8 election, illegal immigrants have worried about tougher enforcement of immigration laws. Trump famously vowed to build a wall the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border, and he kicked off his campaign by saying some Mexican immigrants are "rapists."

While it's unclear whether ICE has been more aggressive in pursuing Villanueva Rivera because Trump is in the White House, he faces a mounting list of legal woes. A Palm Beach County judge on May 1 allowed Villanueva Rivera to be released from jail on house arrest as he faces a state charge, but a federal judge on Friday ordered Villanueva Rivera back to jail in the new case.

"Defendant has no legal status here, no ability to work legally and is facing serious charges," U.S. Magistrate Judge Dave Lee Brannon wrote last week in a pretrial detention order. "Based on these factors, the court finds that defendant is both a danger to the community and a flight risk."

Villanueva Rivera, who has lived in the United States illegally for 27 years, has seven children and no criminal record before the April 30 accident.

The motorcyclist who died was Brandon Wesson of Palm Beach Gardens.

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