another statement, Danielle Jimenez said she had dinner with Montes at her home on the U.S. side of the border on Feb. 18. She said they had a calm night eating and chatting, and that Montes didn't say a word about going to Mexico.

"Juan said he was going home when he left my house," Jimenez said. "I told him to text me when he got home, because I wanted to make sure he was safe. I texted him a few times that night, but got no response."

A few hours later, another friend of Montes on the Mexican side of the border said she received a series of frantic calls from him. Leslie Ramirez said she picked up the phone and was shocked to hear him say he wasin Mexico because he had always said his immigration status barred him from leaving the U.S.

Ramirez said when she met him, he emotionally explained how he had been deported.

"He was holding back tears, and it was clear to me that he was too embarrassed to cry in front of me," Ramirez said. "Juan Manuel told me that he didn’t understand why he had been kicked out and didn’t know what to do."

In his statement, Montes says he left Jimenez's house that night and was waiting by a taxi stand when he was approached by a federal officer, who he believed was a Customs and Border Protection agent. The agent asked for his identification, but Montes said he had left his wallet in a friend's car.

Montes says he was