Federal authorities say a Mexican immigrant who sought refuge in a North Carolina church for nearly a year has been deported.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Bryan Cox said that Samuel Oliver-Bruno was removed from the U.S. to Mexico Thursday evening.
Oliver-Bruno had spent 11 months in a Durham church. He left last week to have his fingerprints taken as part of an application to remain in the U.S. to support his son and ailing wife. He was arrested at an immigration office where he went for the screening as part of his application.
More than two-dozen people were arrested after demonstrators blocked a law enforcement van driving Oliver-Bruno away. ICE has said he had no legal basis to be in the U.S. and had run out of appeals.