‘I haven’t seen a lot of changes,’ immigration attorney says
Joe Duarte, an immigration attorney who handles criminal cases involving migrants, discusses on March 11, 2025, some of the issues he sees on the job.
- The show of force from the Trump administration against people in the U.S. illegally has not stopped some from returning.
- At least 19 people deported in the days after Trump took office have made a swift return to Arizona.
- What’s unknown is how many deportees have returned and eluded authorities.
PHOENIX, Arizona ‒ President Donald Trump has touted fast deportations of people who were in the United States illegally after he took office. Some of those migrants are returning just as quickly.
At least 19 people deported in the days after Trump took office have made a swift return to Arizona, crossing back into the country that kicked them out and getting arrested again.
In one representative case, immigration officials deported a Mexican man through the Arizona border town of Douglas on Feb. 1.
At the time, Trump officials were publicizing their tough action on the border. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement put out daily numbers of arrested individuals. Even television’s Dr. Phil McGraw tagged along on an immigration raid.
But the show of force did not deter 48-year-old Miguel Angel Rodriguez-Bravo from returning.
Less than two weeks after his deportation, he crossed back into the United States again, sneaking in through the desert near Douglas, according to court documents.
On Feb. 13, one day after crossing, he was arrested by Border Patrol near Arizona City, a small community about 180 miles north of the border.
His and the other cases are known because they faced federal prosecution after they were caught yet again. What’s unknown is how many deportees have returned and eluded authorities.
Rodriguez-Bravo stood in front of a federal judge in a downtown Phoenix courtroom 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 entering the country illegally and prosecutors would drop the felony charge of re-entering after a deportation.
Legally, it was as if that first deportation had never happened.
It also meant the case would have a swift end and not take up more of prosecutors’ time.
Magistrate Judge Alison Bachus, in handing down his sentence, urged Rodriguez-Bravo to stay in Mexico. She told him the guilty plea already hurt his chances of ever applying for legal entry into the United States. She said the court understood some people illegally cross the border to improve their lives and suggested he make “adjustments” so he could stay in his own country.
“I strongly encourage you to not re-enter without authorization,” she said to him. Her words were translated into Spanish for his benefit. “If you were to return,” she said, “then you would likely be looking at more time in custody.”
Bachus sentenced him to 30 days in custody. He is scheduled for release into Mexico in mid-March on time already served.
Addison Owen, a section chief with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, said prosecutions and plea deals are reached on a case-by-case basis and evaluated on a number of factors, including a person’s criminal history.
The time in custody is just a part of a series of actions that should make someone not want to come back, Owen said during a phone interview.
“We’re securing a conviction and getting them over to immigration authorities to have them deported,” Owen said. “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 nation’s immigration system said it was not a surprise to see those recently deported try to illegally return.
“People think deportation is the end of the story,” said Austin Kocher, a professor at Syracuse University who has studied immigration statistics for the past decade. “Deportation isn’t the end of anything. People can always try again.”
Kocher said most people who re-enter after a deportation are doing so for work or family and that policy changes in the United States would only marginally affect someone’s decision to cross again.
“If the motivation to come is to be reunited with family,” he said, “I don’t really think that Trump’s policies fundamentally change people’s cost-benefit analysis.”
More than 11,000 people a year were sentenced for re-entering the country after a deportation from 2018 to 2023, according to statistics kept by the United States Sentencing Commission.
In fiscal year 2023, the latest figures available, 12,869 people were convicted of felony re-entry, according to numbers posted on the commission’s website.
That was a slight increase from the previous two years, but lower than the 22,076 people in 2019.
The overwhelming number ― more than 97% ― were Hispanic men, according to the commission. There was no information about the countries where the men came from.
‘It’s worth it to try and cross’
Such cases have persisted in the first weeks of Trump’s second term.
Four men and an 18-year-old woman deported separately between Jan. 26 and Feb. 2 were all arrested by Border Patrol in Glendale on Feb. 6, according to court documents. It was not clear whether they were apprehended at the same time. A Border Patrol spokesperson did not provide details of their detention.
Three of those arrested were deported through El Paso, Texas, one through Nogales, Arizona, and the fifth through Douglas.
All came back to the U.S. through Douglas days before their arrests, records show.
Each agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor illegal entry. In exchange, the government dropped the felony charge of re-entering after a deportation.
It was the same deal reached in seven of 19 cases where a person had returned after a deportation in the second Trump era.
“I wish you safe travels back home to your loved ones,” Magistrate Judge Eileen Willett said March 11, after sentencing 18-year-old Jacquelin Moreno-Ortiz and 24-year-old Rigoberto Montiel-Lobato.
Each was sentenced to the time they served in custody and were turned over for a second deportation.
Another case showed a failed re-entry attempt by a man who was caught by Border Patrol in late February.
A week after he was deported through Nogales, the man showed up 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, said the motivation for the returning migrants is, by and large, that their job or family are in the U.S. Sometimes, he said, it is both.
“They’re separated from their families,” he said. “It’s to be next to and around the kids.”
In court hearings in Phoenix, judges have acknowledged family members who have shown up to support their relative. One family filled two rows of the gallery benches.
Duarte also has seen cases where someone who was deported crosses back to see an elderly relative in ill health one last time.
“It’s worth it to try and cross,” Duarte said.
Migrants returning to U.S. after deportations in previous years
The 19 cases represent migrants who persisted in returning even after a deportation since Trump took office.
Another group of at least 23 migrants who were deported in previous years crossed the border after Trump took office, according to court cases filed in the U.S. District Court in Phoenix.
One man was deported in April 2016, according to court records. Another was as recent as December 2024.
The penalties for repeated re-entry are supposed to increase, according to sentencing guidelines, which are meant to serve as a deterrent.
At the same time, Border Patrol officials have added additional impediments to crossing into the United States illegally.
Trump has looked to fortify the border, sending troops, adding surveillance equipment and installing razor wire atop existing border wall.
Apprehensions along the border have plummeted, according to statistics released by Border Patrol officials.
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 and said Border Patrol agents told him crossings had dropped to 30 a day, rather than 1,500 . Vance did not clarify what time periods he was comparing, but did say the lower number came because Trump took office.
In early March, one man who returned after a deportation stood before a judge. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of illegal reentry in exchange for the government dropping his felony re-entry charge.
The judge made sure the man, Luis Alfonso Fierro-Rocha, understood the stakes: That his guilty plea would harm any chance of gaining legal status in the United States. And that the penalties might rise if he were to be caught crossing again.
The man said he understood.
Court documents show Fierro-Rocha was deported out of the U.S. at Nogales in November 2014. He told authorities he re-entered the United States in April 2021. He was arrested Feb. 12 by Department of Homeland Security agents who surveilled him based on what court documents called “immigration systems checks.”
His cousin who attended the hearing, Marcos Rocha, said he wasn’t sure how his relative came to the attention of immigration authorities. He said his cousin was stopped on his way to work.
Rocha, who heard the judge advise his cousin about the possible penalties if he were caught again, said he thought his cousin would stay in Mexico.
“It’s not worth it,” he said.