PHOENIX Arizona – After taking office, President Donald Trump promised to deport people who were illegally present in the United States quickly. Some of the migrants are returning just as quickly.
At least 19 people deported in the days after Trump took office have quickly returned to Arizona, crossing back into the country that kicked them out and being arrested again.
In one notable case, immigration officials deported a Mexican man through the Arizona border town of Douglas on February 1.
At the time, Trump administration officials were publicizing their tough border policies. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement publishes daily arrest statistics. Even television’s Dr. Phil McGraw joined in on an immigration raid.
However, the show of force did not deter 48-year-old Miguel Angel Rodriguez-Bravo from returning.
According to court documents, he sneaked back into the United States less than two weeks after being deported, this time through the desert near Douglas.
On February 13, one day after crossing, he was apprehended by Border Patrol near Arizona City, a small town about 180 miles north of the border.
His and the other cases are well-known because they were charged with federal crimes after being apprehended again. What is unknown is how many deported individuals have returned and evaded authorities.
Rodriguez-Bravo stood in front of a federal judge in a downtown Phoenix courtroom on March 5. He wore an orange jumpsuit, handcuffs, and leg irons.
He had reached an agreement with prosecutors: he would plead guilty to the misdemeanor crime of illegally entering the country, and prosecutors would drop the felony charge of re-entering after being deported.
It was as if the first deportation never happened.
It also meant that the case would be concluded quickly and without taking up any more of the prosecutors’ time.
In handing down his sentence, Magistrate Judge Alison Bachus urged Rodriguez-Bravo to remain in Mexico. She informed him that the guilty plea had already jeopardized his chances of ever applying for legal entry into the United States. She said the court understood that some people cross the border illegally to improve their lives and advised him to make “adjustments” so he could stay in his home country.
“I strongly encourage you not to re-enter without authorization,” she told him. Her words were interpreted in Spanish for his benefit. “If you were to return,” she informed me, “then you would likely be looking at more time in custody.”
Bachus sentenced him to 30 days in custody. He is scheduled to be released into Mexico in mid-March based on time served.
According to Addison Owen, a section chief with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, prosecutions and plea deals are decided on a case-by-case basis and are based on a variety of factors, including a person’s criminal history.
During a phone interview, Owen explained that the time in custody is just one of several actions that should make someone want to stay away.
“We are securing a conviction and getting them over to immigration authorities to have them deported,” Owen told me. “That entire process is going to deter the individual from returning again.”
After deportation, ‘people can always try again’ to return to US
Those who have worked in or studied the country’s immigration system said it was not surprising to see recently deported individuals attempt to illegally return.
“People think deportation is the end of the story,” said Austin Kocher, a Syracuse University professor who has been researching immigration statistics for the past decade. “Deportation does not mean the end of anything. “People can always try again.”
According to Kocher, the majority of people who re-enter after being deported do so for work or family reasons, and policy changes in the United States would have only a minor impact on someone is decision to cross again.
“If the motivation to come is to be reunited with family,” he reported, “I do not really think that Trump’s policies fundamentally change people’s cost-benefit analysis.”
From 2018 to 2023, more than 11,000 people were sentenced for re-entering the country after being deported, according to the United States Sentencing Commission’s statistics.
According to figures posted on the commission’s website, 12,869 people were convicted of felony re-entry in fiscal year 2023, the most recent available data.
This was a slight increase over the previous two years, but still lower than the 22,076 people in 2019.
The commission reported that over 97% of respondents were Hispanic men. There was no information provided about the men’s home countries.
‘It’s worth it to try and cross’
Such cases persisted in the first few weeks of Trump’s second term.
According to court documents, four men and an 18-year-old woman who were deported separately between January 26 and February 2 were all arrested by Border Patrol in Glendale on February 6. It was unclear whether they were apprehended simultaneously. A Border Patrol spokesperson did not provide information about their detention.
Three of those arrested were deported through El Paso, Texas; one through Nogales, Arizona, and the fifth through Douglas.
According to records, all returned to the United States through Douglas just days before their arrests.
They all agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor illegal entry. In exchange, the government dropped the felony charge of reentering after being deported.
It was the same deal reached in seven of the 19 cases in which a person returned after being deported during the second Trump administration.
“I wish you safe travels back home to your loved ones,” Magistrate Judge Eileen Willett said on March 11, after sentencing Jacquelin Moreno-Ortiz, 18, and Rigoberto Montiel-Lobato, 24.
Each was sentenced to the time they spent in custody and handed over for a second deportation.
Another case involved a failed re-entry attempt by a man apprehended by Border Patrol in late February.
A week after being deported from Nogales, the man arrived at the San Luis port of entry with a fake passport.
Joe Duarte, a private attorney who has worked as a public defender in federal court since 2005, stated that the primary motivation for returning migrants is that they have a job or family in the United States. He admitted that sometimes it is both.
“They are separated from their families,” he told me. “It is to be next to and around the kids.”
In Phoenix court hearings, judges have acknowledged family members who have come to support their relative. One family occupied two rows of gallery benches.
Duarte has also witnessed cases in which someone who has been deported returns to see an elderly relative in poor health for the last time.
“It is worthwhile to try and cross,” Duarte said.
Migrants returning to U.S. after deportations in previous years
The 19 cases represent migrants who have returned despite being deported since Trump took office.
Another group of at least 23 migrants who had previously been deported crossed the border after Trump took office, according to court documents filed in the United States District Court in Phoenix.
A man was deported in April 2016, according to court records. Another occurred as recently as December 2024.
According to sentencing guidelines, the penalties for repeated re-entry should increase in order to serve as a deterrent.
Simultaneously, Border Patrol officials have increased the barriers to illegal entry into the United States.
Trump has attempted to fortify the border by sending troops, adding surveillance equipment, and installing razor wire atop the existing border wall.
Border Patrol officials have released statistics showing that apprehensions along the border have dropped significantly.
During a visit to the border with Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, on March 5, Vice President J.D. Vance cited a 98% reduction in crossings, saying Border Patrol agents told him crossings had dropped to 30 per day, down from 1,500. Vance did not specify which time periods he was comparing, but did state that the lower number came after Trump took office.
In early March, a man who had returned from deportation appeared before a judge. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of illegal reentry in exchange for the government dropping his felony reentry charge.
The judge made sure the man, Luis Alfonso Fierro-Rocha, understood the stakes: his guilty plea would jeopardize his chances of obtaining legal status in the United States. And that the penalties might increase if he is caught crossing again.
He said he understood.
According to court documents, Fierro-Rocha was deported from the United States at Nogales in November 2014. He told authorities that he returned to the United States in April 2021.
He was arrested on February 12 by Department of Homeland Security agents who surveilled him using what court documents referred to as “immigration systems checks.”
His cousin, Marcos Rocha, who attended the hearing, said he had no idea how his relative came to the attention of immigration officials. He reported that his cousin was stopped on his way to work.
Rocha, who heard the judge warn his cousin about the potential penalties if he was caught again, said he expected his cousin to stay in Mexico.
“It is not worth it,” he explained.
