When there is a deportation, I wish foreign spouses and fiances would wait and call an attorney first before returning to the U.S. illegally. Here is a simple example of how bars to reentry work after deportation.

Question

We’re married for 10 yrs. He came as baby, deported once, then came back.
We are raising a child. I am sick. Can he stay?

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Answer

Theresa, I am sorry, but we need to catch these cases while he is still in Mexico after deportation, before he comes back. When he comes back after being deported, his options are very limited. The short answer is that he can only stay illegally. Only in rare cases can we make him legal. Let me explain.

If he was deported and remained in Mexico, he would be barred from entering the U.S. and we could argue to set aside the bar for good cause, if possible. However, he reentered the U.S. after deportation. In this case, the penalties are more severe. There is nothing to be done to make him legal while he remains in the U.S., with very few exceptions.

Exceptions

One exception would be if the U.S. citizen spouse was in the U.S. military, active duty combat. Another exception might be where the foreigner was in an abusive relationship with a U.S. citizen, or is the victim of a crime. A third possible exception would be if the original deportation could be challenged in some manner so that it is undone. If any of these are a possibility, then a bar might still apply. It’s just that we could argue to keep the foreigner in the U.S. while we fight the bar based on extreme hardships to the U.S. citizen.

Apart from these few exceptions, your husband will not be permitted to remain in the U.S. and will eventually be forced to return to Mexico in order to reimmigrate legally. However, when he departs the U.S. he will trigger a 10 year hard bar. What is a 10 year hard bar? Essentially, upon departure from the U.S., your husband will be barred for life. It’s just that we can try to argue for a hardship waiver to bring him back, only after he has been out of the U.S. for 10 years!

In most cases, there is not much to do for a 10 year hard bar unless you can qualify for those very few exceptions noted above. If he does qualify for an exception, we still need to successfully argue for a hardship waiver. Please read this answer twice if necessary. I have packed quite a bit into this answer.