Since 2006, the U.S. Attorney's Office has prosecuted 38 individuals for re-entering the country after deportation, an average of six cases a year over that timeframe.

In 2011, there were eight such cases, according to Mark Zuckerman, assistant U.S. attorney. And already this year, two people have been charged with re-entry after deportation, which is a felony.

Finding individuals who have come back two or three times, Zuckerman said, is “fairly common.” And some illegal immigrants his office has prosecuted have gotten back into the United States as many as six times after having been deported.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has a contract with Strafford County House of Correction to house its detainees at the Dover jail, an agency spokesman said.

The U.S. Marshal's Office also deals with deportees who are charged criminally. “We produce the defendant whenever the court tells us to,” said Brenda Mikelson, chief deputy U.S. marshal.

Depending on where beds are available, illegal immigrants facing charges could be housed in county facilities, including the jails in Strafford, Merrimack and Belknap counties, Mikelson said.

But she said, “We don't handle anything having to do with the deportation. If there are no criminal charges that need to bring the defendant before the court besides the deportation matter, ICE handles all of that.

“We could be housing them at the same facility; they're still considered federal inmates. It's just a matter of which agency has custodial control over it.”

There are also about 100 foreign-born inmates housed in state prison. “These are people ... who have been convicted under state law for committing a crime,” explained Jeff Lyons, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.

One of the most notorious is Vaclav Plch, a native of the Czech Republic who is serving life without parole for the stabbing death and dismemberment of a Manchester woman in 1999.

The state recently received $135,591 in federal funding to offset the cost of incarcerating these inmates in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2010, Lyons said.

There were 99 foreign inmates in state prison as of last June, according to a report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice's State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP). Four counties also received SCAAP grants for housing foreign-born prisoners: Hillsborough, $40,801; Merrimack, $4,248; Grafton, $1,391 and Strafford, $1,127.

Corrections officials rely on inmates to “self-report” their nationalities, Lyons said, noting the department doesn't have the resources to check everyone's status. When a new inmate comes into the prison, he said, “We ask them what their citizenship is.”

If an inmate indicates he's not a U.S. citizen, the department reports that to ICE, Lyons said. “It's really (ICE's) choice to pursue whether or not they will be deported” once they've served their sentences, he said.

Facing deportation to Mexico for a fourth time, he has NH roots