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Maria claimed to be a different woman than the criminal the federal judge read about in her file.
Yes, she came back into the United States after being deported to Mexico. But she told the judge she had turned her life around and came back to help care for her seven U.S.-born children.
The judge still found Maria's history just too "concerning," ordering her to serve three years in a federal prison before she is deported again.
"I'm sad, desperate. I miss my children," said the 36-year-old from a Florida prison. "I tried everything possible to be moved so I could be closer to them but I couldn't."
Maria (not her real name) first came to the United States as a 7-year-old when her mother, Rosa, was working in the fruit fields of California. Rosa gained permanent resident status through amnesty in the 1980s, but her daughter never followed through on trying to change her undocumented status based on her mother.
"I was about 19, and I thought I didn't need to. I was graduating from high school," Maria said. "Then when I looked into it and I got scared. Never in my life did I think I would be deported."
Maria became a mother for the first time at age 15. She said she became a marijuana and methamphetamine user after her husband and the father of three of her children left her around 2000. She was arrested and convicted for alcohol and substance abuse.
Child welfare authorities gave her mother custody of her children in 2005. Her most serious offenses came in 2006.
In one case, she was a passenger in a car and had a small amount of cocaine, according to court documents. But the car she was riding in had packing materials and other drugs.
Later that year, Maria was arrested in a home where police found large amounts of meth, court documents state.
Maria said she followed her attorney's advice and pleaded guilty so she could be let out quicker to help her mother, who was having heart surgery. She was deported in 2007.
"It wasn't an escape," Maria says of her drug use. "I had my children. The greatest treasure in the world and I lost it all. And now I regret it with all my heart."
Maria was convicted for re-entering the country illegally a year and a half later. Yet she doesn't view herself as others may: as a criminal.
"I'm not a criminal. I didn't come back to live the good life," Maria says of her return. "I came back for my children. Their future is here."
She had no arrests after her return, but her past drug convictions raised sentencing guidelines followed by federal judges from 6-12 months up to 37-46 months.
It has been more than a year since Maria was sentenced. The court recently denied an appeal on her case.
At home in Utah, Rosa, who is chronically ill, remains the caretaker of Maria's four younger children. Overstretched by illness and the children, she placed two of the older kids in foster care.
Maria says she never dealt drugs, but she faces the same deportation consequences as those who do.
Deportation didn't stop Alberto Rodriguez-Becerra from coming back to the U.S. and committing more of the same drug crimes.
A federal judge in February 2009 sentenced the 30-year-old to serve 78 months in prison for possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and re-entry of a previously removed person. He and another man were caught with 50 grams of meth when the Utah Central Narcotic Task Force was informed the two were selling drugs from Becerra's home in La Verkin in June 2007.
Becerra is scheduled to be deported to Mexico for a third time once he is released in February 2013.
In 2006, Becerra was arrested on possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and deported the following year. His first deportation came after an arrest for simple assault-domestic violence four years before.
In his most recent case, a judge initially declared Becerra incompetent before an evaluation found he had "reflected a purposeful attempt to exaggerate or feign impairment."