BAY CITY, MI -- Having already been deported several times, a Mexican man is facing prison time after again pleading guilty in federal court to being in the U.S. illegally.

Aaron Diaz-Leal, 32, in early June appeared before U.S. District Magistrate Patricia T. Morris at the federal courthouse in downtown Bay City and pleaded guilty to one count of illegal reentry of a previously removed alien. The charge is a 10-year felony.

Diaz-Leal spoke through an interpreter to address Morris and enter his plea.

Records indicate Diaz-Leal's sentencing guidelines range from eight to 14 months. He could also face a fine of up to $250,000 and deportation to Mexico.

U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington is to sentence Diaz-Leal at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 31.

Diaz-Leal has been deported at least three times before his May 11 arrest from which his most recent conviction stems.

On two days in September 2005, he was arrested in South Carolina on charges of simple assault and driving without a license. He was ordered to pay $905 and spent 30 days in jail.

He was arrested again in South Carolina in August 2007, this time for cocaine possession. Prosecutors dropped the case, but he was deported in January 2008.

Police in South Carolina arrested Diaz-Leal yet again in March 2009 for driving without a license and driving while intoxicated. The next month, he was deported a second time.

Diaz-Leal was deported a third time following a June 2010 arrest in Indiana on drunken driving charges. The actual deportation occurred in October 2010.

By May 2017, Diaz-Leal was back in the U.S., specifically Michigan. An affidavit written by Border Patrol Agent Niklas Green states two of his colleagues on May 11 were in Gaylord in response to a tip they'd received of an undocumented immigrant staying in Nottingham Trailer Park. The agents spotted a parked Cadillac CTS with North Carolina plates, matching a description given by the tipster as being a car driven by the immigrant.

At 10:30 a.m., the agents pulled over the Cadillac on M-32 and found Diaz-Leal behind the wheel, with another man also in the car. The agents arrested Diaz-Leal when he admitted he was a Mexican citizen and did not have any documents indicating it was legal for him to be in the U.S.

Diaz-Leal was transferred to the Sault Sainte Marie Border Patrol Station for processing.

Diaz-Leal is the fifth person to face federal charges illegal reentry of a previously removed alien in Bay City since May 4.

Rafael Munoz-Molina, deported seven times since the late 1990s and arrested in Monitor Township in May, has pleaded guilty to the same charge as Diaz-Leal and is awaiting sentencing. The three other defendants -- Raul Resendez-Ledezma, Josefina Hernandez-Gomez, and Jose Suarez-Huerta -- have plea hearings pending.