Samuel Oliver-Bruno is a Mexican-national who had sought sanctuary in a Durham church for nearly a year, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), arrested him at 8:45pm, Thursday, night, after he left said church. Because churches are one of the few places where ICE can not make arrests, this is where he took refuge.

  Oliver-Bruno was arrested when he left the church in order to make it to his appointment with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in Morrisville. They requested to have him appear in person in order to give fingerprints, which is essential to the process of petitioning to delay deportation. He was then arrested by ICE agents who were dressed in plain clothes on his way to the USCIS office.

  Oliver-Bruno’s supporters are calling his situation entrapment, and gathered outside Durham City Hall, asking the Department of Homeland Security to reverse the decision to remove him from the United States.

  Junior Anna Marie Schultz commented, “I feel it’s wrong for ICE to disguise themselves and arrest Oliver-Bruno. If anything, I feel they knew they were doing something that would cause a lot of anger, so they tried to be discrete about it.”

  As ICE agents put Oliver-Bruno into a van to be transported to a detention center, his supporters – singing hymns and praying – blockaded the van. They refused to move after many orders to disperse; after two hours, many were arrested by Morrisville police along with the Wake Sheriff’s Office.

  Many people are upset because Oliver-Bruno had been living in the US for over twenty years, even though ICE reportedly told him that he had no legal basis to stay in the US. He was also caught trying to cross the border in 2014 with fake documents.

  Cleve May, the pastor of the church where Oliver-Bruno took sanctuary, said that the immigration authorities in the US are the ones who granted him stay of removal, gave him a work permit, and a driver’s license. However, he was not able to renew his work permit because of the new regulations associated with the current administration.

   Currently, Samuel Oliver-Bruno’s location has not been released by ICE, although he was moved from the detention center in Georgia where he was being kept. He is still awaiting his deportation.