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could make it nearly impossible to return.) But then his mother told him his wife Amanda
had developed a drug addiction. He told Human Rights Watch, “You hear all this bad news
[in Tijuana], and you feel like you’re in jail because you’re incapable of doing anything.”
Robert worried that his children could be taken away from his wife and end up in foster care.
So in 2010, he tried to return. He was caught at the border and deported in his first attempt,
but he made it to Los Angeles the second time.
Robert said that for a year he worked and visited Amanda regularly at a rehabilitation
center. But he suspected his wife was still using drugs. Robert filed for divorce, sought
custody of their children, and was granted emergency custody. He said, “That’s when
my wife called immigration.”
Robert said that he had pleaded guilty in 2003 on the advice of his public defender,
who said he would only receive two or three weeks in jail, and Robert did not think it
would lead to deportation. Instead, he received a one-year sentence and served 11
months. He has no other criminal convictions. But under the federal Sentencing
Guidelines, a single prior conviction for a “crime of violence,” whether stemming from a
fight or from murder, can lead to a significant prison sentence. His sentence of fourand-a-half
years for illegal reentry is over four times as long as the time he served for
his assault conviction 10 years earlier.
Robert does not regret coming back to the US. His children are now in the custody of his
mother. He wishes that his 54-year-old mother, who works seven days a week as a
housekeeper, could rest instead of raising four kids, and he is sorry to have “left her with
a big responsibility.” But at the same time, “Even though I’m in jail here, I feel closer to
my kids than I did there, free.” He reports his children are “happy, they’re healthy.” When
he asks them if they want to go back to their mother, they say they would rather stay with
their grandmother.
What Robert’s children do not fully understand is why he is in prison. “My oldest
daughter, she asks me, ‘Did you commit a crime?’ And I say, ‘I came back for you.’” 156
156 Ibid. The special assistant US attorney assigned to this case declined to comment because the case is pending on appeal.
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