French Citizen Pleads Guilty to Being in the United States Illegally

Bangor, Maine: Acting United States Attorney Richard W. Murphy announced that Philippe Maurice, 50, a citizen of France, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to being an alien who was found in the United States after having been removed and deported.

Court documents reveal that on May 17, 2017, at approximately 3:55 p.m., U.S. Border Patrol agents found the defendant riding a bike on a dirt logging road in Portage, Maine. The defendant claimed he was a U.S. citizen. When an agent asked the defendant for proof of citizenship, he produced a French driver’s license. The defendant then acknowledged that he was a French citizen, that friends had dropped him off in Canada near the border, and that he entered the United States illegally by riding a bike through the closed St. Pamphile Port of Entry. Immigration records showed that the defendant had been removed from the United States in 2015.

The defendant faces up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.

The case was investigated by U.S. Border Patrol.