DALLAS – Court records show a man in the country illegally who's accused of a string of crimes that left two dead in the Dallas area had fraudulently obtained a U.S. passport that allowed him to freely travel across the Texas-Mexico border.
According to the records, Silvestre Franco-Luviano had already been deported once by the time he stole the identity of a man in Brownsville to obtain a Texas driver's license and state birth certificate. He provided copies of those documents to receive a U.S. passport in 2006 that allowed him to cross the border 35 times.
The man whose identity was stolen later applied for a passport but was denied because records indicated he already had one.
Franco-Luviano was apprehended and sentenced to prison, then deported again.
His lawyer declined comment on the latest charges.