Five Times Removed: Serial Offender Jailed

⏱ 3 min read

Jose Mario Cervantes-Luna, 42, is headed back to a federal cage after a judge handed him two years for his fifth illegal return to the United States. Federal agents in Houston collared Cervantes-Luna after he snuck back across the border in December 2020, ignoring five previous deportations – in 2004, 2011, and three times in 2012. The plea was entered December 10, 2025, with Judge Alfred H. Bennett delivering the sentence.

What makes this case especially sickening? Cervantes-Luna isn’t just a repeat border crosser; he’s a convicted sex offender. Court records reveal he previously was found guilty of sexually assaulting a child under 14. That history weighed heavily on Judge Bennett, who explicitly cited the danger Cervantes-Luna posed to the community when deciding on the 24-month sentence.

The feds, led by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, built the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amanda Alum and Benjamin Hostetter drove the prosecution. It’s all part of the DOJ’s “Operation Take Back America” – a broad-stroke, often toothless effort to tighten border security and supposedly dismantle criminal organizations. In Cervantes-Luna’s case, it landed a repeat offender back behind bars… for now.

After Cervantes-Luna serves his time, he’ll again be subject to deportation. Whether he’ll finally stay gone is an open question. The system, it seems, is content to simply shuffle him back and forth across the border, a revolving door of recidivism.