A Salvadoran man with a criminal record was recently arrested at San Francisco International Airport while trying to board a flight to self-deport.
After three weeks in custody, a federal court convicted him of being in the country illegally following a prior removal, according to court documents, and he is now expected to be deported back to El Salvador — exactly where he was attempting to go when he was detained.
Jeisson Rony Escobar-Valencia, 30, was brought to the Bay Area at 11 years old by his father, who had obtained temporary protected status due to unsafe conditions in El Salvador. Escobar-Valencia spent the entirety of his adolescent and adult life in the U.S, where he now has a 2-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter, according to documents filed by his attorney, Elisse Larouche.
Escobar-Valencia is a convicted sex offender and was previously deported, but his lawyer said that when he boarded the flight at SFO, he was "trying to do the right thing — leave the U.S. because he did not have legal status here."
In 2018, Escobar-Valencia was convicted of committing lewd acts with a child under 14 years old.
According to Larouche, he entered a plea deal that he thought would protect him from deportation. It did not, however, and he was deported to El Salvador in May 2021 after spending three years in prison.
Shortly after arriving back in El Salvador, Escobar-Valencia was the victim of an attempted homicide in a neighborhood controlled by MS-13, according to a police report included in court documents. He jumped out of a moving car after an attacker held a knife to his throat and sliced a 4-inch cut.
After this traumatic encounter, Escobar-Valencia feared he would be kidnapped or attacked again, according to Larouche.
"It was in this context that Mr. Escobar-Valencia made the decision to return to the U.S.," Larouche wrote. "He understands now that he should not have returned, but at the time, he was in extreme fear and made the wrong and unlawful choice."
Upon his return to America, Escobar-Valencia was arrested in Martinez, Calif., in July 2021 and served four months in jail for failure to register as a sex offender. On Feb. 14, he was once again arrested for failure to register as a sex offender in Richmond, Calif.
In July, he made the decision to self-deport, purchasing his own ticket from San Francisco to San Salvador.
Read more: More immigrants opt to self-deport rather than risk being marched out like criminals
The Trump administration has been urging people who are in the U.S. illegally to self-deport as part of its ongoing immigration crackdown. In May, the Department of Homeland Security began offering people without documentation a $1,000 stipend and travel assistance to leave the country voluntarily.
But when Escobar-Valencia attempted to board his flight on July 23, he was apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, according to court documents.
"[Escobar-Valencia] said goodbye to his family including two young children and partner, and was determined to set up a life in El Salvador where his family could later join him," Larouche wrote. "Instead, the government intervened to criminally prosecute Mr. Escobar-Valencia, putting him in criminal custody for this case followed by a prolonged period in immigration custody before he can return to El Salvador."
Escobar-Valencia subsequently entered a plea bargain agreeing to the "virtual certainty of his deportation" in exchange for the swift resolution of his case, according to court documents. On Aug. 14, a federal judge sentenced him to time served plus one more day in prison, after which point Escobar-Valencia was transferred into ICE's custody.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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