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who was starting to get in trouble with the police and using drugs. Without his income, his
wife was unable to make the mortgage payments on their house, so she and the six
children were about to lose their home. Although the only offenses on his record apart
from illegal entry and reentry are traffic violations, he is permanently barred from gaining
legal status through his wife, in part because of mistakes an immigration lawyer made in
2000. 146 He now has a felony conviction for illegal reentry, as well as a misdemeanor
conviction for illegal entry. 147
Others reported how the pain their deportation had brought on their parents and siblings
compelled them to return. Roberto Huerta Huerta, a former permanent resident who had
lived in the US since he was 14, said that he was deported after a conviction for
possession of one gram of cocaine. According to the complaints in his two cases for illegal
reentry, Huerta had tried to reenter and been removed six times. 148 He wrote in a letter
while serving a one-year sentence,
[My mother] already had a heart condition when I got arrested and by the
time I was deported her condition worsened to the point where she was
constantly being hospitalized. This last time I crossed the border line was
to see her because I was afraid she might die and I would not be able to
attend her funeral.” 149
Huerta also left a son behind in the US. He told us that when his son was killed, he was
unable to go to the funeral. 150
In several cases, defendants or their attorneys reported that they had returned to the US
because of specific family emergencies. Heather Williams recounted a case in which her
client returned illegally because his permanent resident wife was dying of cancer; he had
been denied permission to enter temporarily, and he wanted to arrange for his oldest
146 Human Rights Watch interview with Artemio Lechuga-Lechuga, September 25, 2012
147 Court documents in United States v. Artemio Lechuga-Lechuga, 2012-CR-1931 (W.D. Texas 2012).
148 Court documents in United States v. Roberto Huerta Huerta, 2007-CR-190 (Ariz. 2007) and 2011-CR-4189 (Ariz. 2012).
149 Letter from Roberto Huerta Huerta to Human Rights Watch, September 24, 2012.
150 Ibid.
55 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013