Two Mexican nationals pleaded guilty Tuesday to entering the United States illegally in Aroostook County.
Manuel Bonilla Davila, 38, formerly of Staten Island, New York, and Eduardo Ruiz Rojas, 36, formerly of New York City, appeared separately on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor.
The men were among seven people arrested in April for illegally crossing into Maine from Canada, some of whom were spotted by drones over Mars Hill. They had crossed an unmanned border at East Ridge Road, behind Mars Hill Mountain.
Border Patrol agents discovered Davila and Rojas in a car near the international boundary, according to court documents. Both men had been deported from the United States to Mexico last September, but a week later illegally crossed the border again.
Davila had previously been removed from Texas in 2011 and Rojas from Arizona in 2019, immigration records showed. Neither man had obtained consent to reapply for admission from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to court records.
Davila and Rojas each face up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine. They will be sentenced at a later date by the U.S. Probation Office.
