Two months after questions were raised about the legality of his deportation by U.S. authorities, a Salvadoran man returned from his homeland Tuesday to a tearful reunion with his wife in Miami.

Meanwhile, friends and relatives of two Miami Dade College students are drumming up support to keep the two men from being deported to their native Venezuela.

The cases, say immigrant rights advocates, have rekindled fears that immigration authorities are stepping up detentions and deportations.

``The immigrant community expected reform, that was promised, and all they've got is increased enforcement,'' said Jonathan Fried, executive director of WeCount!, a Homestead-based immigrant rights group planning a public meeting Saturday on immigration enforcement. ``The Obama administration has no heart. It's all about politics.''

U.S. immigration authorities counter that they continue to focus their enforcement efforts on criminal aliens -- immigrants who are convicted of crimes while in the United States, said Barbara Gonzalez, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman in Washington.

ARRESTS INCREASING

The latest numbers show that ICE arrested nearly 16,000 criminal aliens in fiscal year 2009, up from less than 8,000 in the previous year. In Miami, arrests have climbed from 263 to 725 during the same time period.

``Our numbers are a clear indication that our focus is on criminal aliens,'' Gonzalez said.

ICE officials would not provide details on the case of José C. Rodríguez-Portillo, the Salvadoran man allowed to return to the United States or that of the students, Guillermo and Jesús Reyes.

None of the three immigrants are criminal aliens but the legal status of all three remains in question.

In a rare move last week, the U.S. immigration authorities agreed to review the deportation case against Rodríguez-Portillo. In reopening the case, U.S. officials agreed to allow the Salvadoran man to return to Miami because of his claims that he was, in fact, lawfully in the United States.

Rodríguez-Portillo's attorney, Eduardo Soto, said the federal government had overlooked evidence that his client was among thousands of Salvadorans granted temporary protected status, or TPS, in the aftermath of devastating earthquakes that struck the Central American country in 2001.

Soto, who also represents the Reyes brothers, said he has filed a motion to temporarily prevent the federal government from deporting the two young men, who were given final deportation orders and were detained last week by immigration officers.

Meanwhile, a fellow immigration attorney -- Cheryl Little of Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, also became involved in the case with Soto's authorization.

She said she will file a request for deferred action and plans to coordinate a publicity campaign to build public opinion on the brothers' behalf.

``While immigration officials are saying they are focusing efforts on picking up immigrants with criminal histories, in fact, students who have excelled in school are being picked up,'' said Little, the FIAC executive director.

KILLIAN FLASHBACK

The case of the Reyes brothers is similar to that of former Killian High School student Juan Gomez, who drew national attention in 2007 after his classmates rallied against the deportation of Juan and his older brother, Alex. Both were allowed to remain in the country to attend college as international students.

The father of the Reyes brothers -- Jesús Reyes Sr. -- told El Nuevo Herald that Guillermo, 25, is a former Miami Dade College computer animation student, while Jesús, 21, is a Miami Dade College student who graduated in international relations and currently is taking criminal justice courses.