A man tried self-deporting to El Salvador. Immigration agents stopped him on the SFO jetway

OAKLAND — After already being deported once following a child sex crime conviction, Jeisson Escobar-Valencia knew staying in the United States was “untenable” as a migrant living in the country illegally, according to federal court filings.

So he bought a one-way ticket to El Salvador, went to San Francisco International Airport for his July 23 flight and passed through security — all with the goal of self-deporting back to his native country.

He made it as far as the jetway.

Steps away from boarding the airplane, Department of Homeland Security agents swooped in and detained him. The TACA International Airlines direct flight to San Salvador left without him, presumably with his seat in 26A going empty for the 5-hour-plus trip.

Since then, he’s faced a federal criminal case for being in the country illegally, which is expected to end with him being deported to El Salvador, recent courtroom testimony and legal filings show.

On Thursday, three weeks after being stopped at the airport, a federal judge in Oakland sentenced him to spend one more day in jail. After that, federal authorities are likely to begin the process of sending Escobar-Valencia back abroad, said U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers during Thursday’s hearing. If they don’t, then Escobar-Valencia must serve three years on supervised release, the judge said.

The case ranks among the first of an expected wave of newly fast-tracked criminal immigration proceedings at the federal courthouse in downtown Oakland. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Green said in court Thursday that more cases like Escobar-Valencia’s are likely to be filed in the coming months, though he offered no other details of his office’s plans.

It all comes as federal immigration authorities ramp up President Donald Trump’s long-promised immigration crackdown, with workplace raids in Southern California by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and arrests of migrants seeking asylum at courthouses in San Francisco and Concord.

In television commercials, Department of Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem has gone so far as to command migrants to “do what’s right — leave now.”

“If you don’t, we will find you and we will deport you,” Noem said in one ad. Her warnings usually come with a promise of $1,000 for any migrants willing to self-deport back to their home countries.

Typically, criminal prosecutions for the type of charge that Escobar-Valencia faced — illegal reentry following removal subsequent to a felony conviction — are most commonly filed at the U.S-Mexico border, said Lisa Knox, co-executive director of the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. On Friday, she questioned the wisdom of stopping someone from trying to self-deport, particularly given the Trump administration’s demands for migrants to do just that.

“I don’t know what purpose it serves other than just being punitive and cruel,” said Knox, adding that “there’s a lot of resources that are being used to essentially keep this person in the United States, who was essentially trying to self-deport.”

Federal authorities first deported Escobar-Valencia on May 21, 2021, after he served three years in state prison for a 2018 conviction for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old. Details about the case, which was filed in Fresno County, were not available Friday.

It also remains unclear exactly when Escobar-Valencia returned to the United States.

Escobar-Valencia’s attorney, Elisse Marie Larouche, claimed in court filings that he returned to the U.S. sometime after being “essentially kidnapped” in December 2021, when a man hidden in the backseat of his vehicle attacked him and held a knife to his neck. He escaped by jumping out of the vehicle, the attorney wrote.

The court filings included pictures of his injuries from the encounter, including a nearly three-inch gash on the right side of his neck, another cut on his forehead and significant road rash on his arm.

Federal prosecutors said Escobar-Valencia was arrested in Martinez in Contra Costa County back on June 5, 2021 — just 15 days after first being deported back to El Salvador — on suspicion of failing to register as a sex offender.

He was arrested again on Feb. 14, 2025, in the West Contra Costa County city of Richmond and charged with the same crime. He pleaded no contest on April 16 and was sentenced to four months in jail, with more than two months of credit for time served. He was also sentenced to four months of probation, which was scheduled to end on Aug. 16.

In court Thursday, Escobar-Valencia’s self-booked flight took center stage.

His attorney, Larouche, said in court filings that Escobar-Valencia bought the plane ticket with the goal of having his partner and two children, ages 2 and 1, reunite with him “once he was established there.”

“He decided to leave of his own accord,” Larouche told Judge Gonzalez Rogers. “He was trying to do the right thing.”

Green, the federal prosecutor, agreed. He said sentencing guidelines called for Escobar-Valencia to spend 18 to 24 months in prison after pleading guilty, but the prosecutor instead recommended a one-day jail term.

“The defendant has comported himself with civility,” he said at the hearing. “The defendant is leaving his family, including two young children, and that’s not a small thing for a defendant to be doing.”

Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.