Update at 2:20 p.m., Wednesday: Mario Amaya was deported and sent on a plane to El Salvador on Wednesday by Immigration and Custom Enforcement, his Dallas attorney said this afternoon.

Dozens of supporters of a Salvadoran immigrant scheduled for deportation protested Tuesday outside a federal immigration agency, saying the man had no criminal history and was unfairly targeted.

In February, Mario Amaya, a 38-year-old unauthorized immigrant, attempted to visit someone in a Kaufman County jail when his immigration status was checked and he was detained, said Farheen Siddiqi, an attorney with the public interest firm of Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, or RAICES.

Such county and federal government cooperation unfairly targets unauthorized immigrants who have committed no criminal offenses, Siddiqi said. At the Dallas County Jail, visitors are required to show a government-issued photo ID, which are issued only to those lawfully in the U.S.

Amaya was originally ordered to be deported in 2005 after he failed to show up for an immigration court hearing in Harlingen.

Immigrant defenders converge at @ICEgov in Dallas to ask for deportation halt of Mario Amaya, a Salvadoran father of 2 sons, 1 daughter. He’s in U.S. unlawfully, ordered removed in absentia/no crim. history, says @RAICESTEXAS. Muslim scholar prays for Amaya at video’s end. pic.twitter.com/hULCakndkq — Dianne Solis (@disolis) April 3, 2018

“What do we want? Justice,” yelled about three dozen protesters outside the federal offices of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as traffic whizzed by on Stemmons Freeway.

Increasingly, religious leaders are protesting what they view as harsh treatment of immigrants, both in the U.S. unlawfully and lawfully. The Dallas group included Catholics, a Christian pastor and a Muslim immigrant cleric who kneeled in prayer for much of the demonstration. The religious workers were associated with the organization Faith in Texas. Attorneys provided photos of Amaya with his Catholic priest at Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Farmers Branch.

Late Tuesday afternoon, ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said a temporary humanitarian request, which would delay the deportation, is pending with ICE. A previous request last month had been denied, Rusnok said.

Amaya was living in Irving with his three children who came to the U.S. in 2014 and 2016 and are seeking asylum from Salvadoran gang violence, said Siddiqi.

Siddiqi had asked that ICE release Amaya on an order of supervision. Amaya’s children need their father’s emotional support and one child suffers from gang-related trauma and is seeing a therapist, Siddiqi said.

Siddiqi and other RAICES’ attorneys said the Amaya case illustrates the toughened policies of President Donald Trump's administration, where deportation priorities of the past no longer apply. Trump has made an immigration crackdown a signature issue of his administration.