A Texas chef who had been hired by former President George W. Bush has been deported — twice — after it emerged that he was in the US illegally for more than three decades.

Sergio Garcia’s food truck had long been a favorite in Waco, Texas — and Bush hired him to cater events for the press corps covering him during his two terms.

The then-president and first lady Laura Bush even posed for smiling pics with Garcia, signing one “with best wishes.”

But it emerged the married father of four had actually snuck into the US illegally in 1989, overstaying a tourist visa — then ignored a 2002 order to leave signed by an immigration judge.

Garcia confirmed to the Waco Bridge that he was first nabbed by immigration agents on March 25, and deported back to Mexico within 24 hours.

“They asked me if I’m Sergio, and I said, ‘Yeah, I’m Sergio,’” he recalled of agents nabbing him at his food truck. “They said, ‘You gotta come with us.’”

However, he crept back across the border on foot in April — only to be deported once again

“On April 30, Garcia once again showed that he thinks he’s above the law, by illegally reentering the U.S. near Laredo, Texas,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told the Waco outlet.

“US Border Patrol agents arrested him that same day and he was criminally prosecuted for illegal entry. On June 3, he was convicted of illegal entry and deported to Mexico June 4.”

The sudden deportation of such a popular — and well-connected — chef has shocked many locally.

“Deportations like Sergio’s — to fixtures of the community — are making people think, ‘This could be me next, or my favorite place next, or somebody who I talk to every day’,” said Mito Diaz-Espinoza, president of the Cen-Tex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

However, ICE insisted that the “twice-deported criminal alien from Mexico, illegally entered the US, was afforded full due process under the law, and was ordered deported by an immigration judge at great taxpayer expense.”

“In complete defiance to our nation’s system of laws, he fled from authorities and remained an immigration fugitive for more than 23 years,” it said of the time since his order of deportation in 2002.

Garcia’s wife has joined him in Mexico. The couple is now attempting to legally come back to the US, and insist they spent years and “so much money” trying to get legal status before the deportation.

“I wish I could go back to the USA, but it’s not up to me,” Garcia said.

Blake Burleson, deacon at Seventh and James Baptist Church in Waco, said he will miss Garcia’s incredible cooking.

“I thought El Siete Mares was the greatest restaurant in Waco,” Burleson said. “When we had guests in town, we’d always take them there.”