Judge Stops Deportation Of Brooklyn Delivery Man, Officials Say

NEW YORK CITY — The delivery man who was arrested by ICE officials — summoned by Brooklyn army guards who had ordered a pizza from him — won a temporary reprieve just as he was slated to be deported, his attorneys said.

Pablo Villavicencio, 35, can stay in the United States until July 20 after his attorneys won an emergency stay from Judge Alison J. Nathan in Manhattan Federal Court on Saturday, one day after they discovered his deportation was imminent, the Legal Aid Society, who is representing Villavicencio, said in a statement.

Villavicencio — who was arrested at the Fort Hamilton Army Base on June 6 — will remain in ICE custody in New Jersey as Legal Aid Immigration Law Unit attorneys Gregory Copeland and Sarah Gillman fight for a more permanent means to keep in the United States — a meritorious form of relief from removal, they said.

Immigration officials argue the Ecuadorian citizen is "an ICE fugitive" because he did not leave the United States after an immigration judge ordered him to leave voluntarily in March 2010, said ICE spokesperson Rachael Yong Yow.

But elected officials, advocates and outraged New Yorkers who have since rallied around Villavicencio and his family and a GoFundMe campaign say he was the victim of an unjust immigration system.

"Detaining a hardworking man, separating a father from his children and tearing apart families doesn't make America safe," Governor Andrew Cuomo wrote in a statement released Friday.

"He's the center of our family," said his wife, Sandra Chica, in a video statement. "Please don't take him away from us."