A Maryland pastor has been reunited with his family after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for allegedly overstaying his visa by 25 years.
Daniel Fuentes Espinal, 54, was released from a detention centre in Louisiana last week, according to family friend Len Foxwell.
"Pastor Fuentes Espinal and his family are together again for the first time since that terrible morning of July 21, when a pastor and father of three said goodbye to his wife and children, left for work, and never came home," Foxwell said on social media last Thursday, according to CBS News.
Foxwell called Pastor Daniel a "pillar of our community" and said his family and congregation are delighted to have him back.
"He has been here for 24 years, has never been charged with a crime, and more importantly, he's been the moral and spiritual center of a tight-knit community on the Eastern Shore," he wrote.
Foxwell added that their local community had raised funds to help with legal and travel expenses as they campaigned for Pastor Daniel's release.
"I'm just very happy and my heart is full," daughter Clarissa Fuentes Diaz said in a video to the community after travelling to pick up her father. "Thank you so much and may God bless you."
As Premier previously reported, last month ICE agents arrested Fuentes Espinal at a hardware shop where he had stopped to purchase construction materials on his way to work.
Unidentified agents reportedly stopped and detained him before transferring him to Baltimore. His family only discovered his whereabouts when he called later that night, just as they were about to file a missing person’s report.
Several days later, he was transferred to a detention facility near New Orleans, Louisiana.
In a statement, ICE said that Fuentes Espinal, a Honduran national, "entered the United States on a 6-month visa and never left in 24 years."
"It is a federal crime to overstay the authorized period of time granted under a visitor's visa," the agency added.
