DETROIT (FOX 2) - Gerardo Flores-Banda, 48, was charged with illegally re-entering the U.S. for the second time, just six weeks after he was deported for the first offense.
United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. announced the charges Monday after a court hearing.
Flores-Banda was initially deported in 2012, and then discovered to have re-entered the country in July 2025. After a court hearing he was removed from the country a second time, only to be found back in the U.S. a few weeks later.
On July 30, 2025, the government charged Flores-Banda with unlawfully re-entering the United States. The next month, the government sought Flores-Banda’s detention before a United States Magistrate Judge in Detroit. But that magistrate judge gave him bond and a district court judge affirmed his release. The government then indicted Flores-Banda.
Because Flores-Banda had been released to the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he was removed from the United States in September before his federal case could be concluded. Given Flores-Banda’s history of illegal re-entry, the government sought to hold his case in abeyance. But the district court denied the government’s motion and dismissed Flores-Bandes’s case without prejudice.
Six weeks after he was removed, law enforcement found Flores-Banda back in the United States near Naivan Vaya, Arizona. The government then indicted him in Arizona and he pleaded guilty to being in the country illegally. He awaits sentencing. The government now seeks to reinstate its previously dismissed illegal re-entry case based on Flores-Banda’s 2025 arrest in Michigan.
"Serial criminals like the defendant must be deterred from breaking into our country," Gorgon said. "They do not respect the law of the land. When Americans break the law, they don’t get a free ride out of the country. And this defendant should not be treated better than our citizens. He should have to face the consequences for his alleged crime."