SAN DIEGO — A federal judge has denied bail to a former Border Patrol agent accused of being an illegal immigrant who smuggled others into the United States in his patrol vehicle.

U.S. Magistrate Anthony Battaglia on Wednesday denied bail to Oscar Antonio Ortiz, who pleaded not guilty last week to charges of alien smuggling and making a false claim to U.S. citizenship.

"You have no right to live here, you have no right to work here, and you're not going to be getting that right anytime soon," Battaglia told Ortiz, who was dressed in an orange jumpsuit.

Ortiz, 28, began smuggling people in his Border Patrol vehicle last fall, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Jennings. He picked up four or five people at a time in his area of patrol and drove them farther inside the United States, she said.

Ortiz smuggled immigrants with the help of another unnamed agent who is cooperating with the government. The two were paid between $1,000 and $1,500 a person, Jennings said. She said Ortiz began working with another smuggling ring last spring and allegedly agreed to turn a blind eye to smugglers who drove past him with loads of between 30 and 50 people.

Ortiz applied for the Border Patrol job in 2001 with a fake birth certificate that said he was born in Chicago, when in fact he was born in Tijuana, Mexico, according to the complaint.

His attorney, Stephen White, noted in court that Ortiz served four years in the U.S. Navy and was honorably discharged before joining the Border Patrol.