A Mesa man was detained and deported back to Mexico on Thursday after he arrived for a scheduled check-in with federal immigration officials in Phoenix as they had instructed him to do last month, his family and supporters said.

Marco Tulio Coss Ponce, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, had been allowed to remain in the United States by immigration officials under supervised release. He has resided in this country for nearly 20 years, his family said.

In 2014, the Shadow Rock United Church of Christ in north Phoenix provided him sanctuary.

An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed on Friday that Ponce had been returned to Mexico.

Church members held a vigil outside the Phoenix office of ICE on Thursday evening to pray for Ponce and protest the ICE actions. They planned to continue their watch Friday.

Ken Heintzelman, church pastor, said the federal action will break up Ponce's family.

"They're a good family. They need to be together. They should be together. They add value to our community,'' he said, referring to the man's wife and two children.

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Heintzelman said ICE deceived the family by saying he needed to check in with paperwork for his stay of removal.

"This was a total blindside,'' he said.

Scheduled check-in

Ponce had met with ICE officials in Phoenix on April 12 for a scheduled check-in. At that time, officials reset the check-in for 30 days.

All along, the family had concerns he could be taken into custody and quickly deported under tougher deportation policies ushered in under President Donald Trump's administration.

At that time, his attorney said he would be submitting an application for a stay of removal from the country and explore other options.

Ponce's son, Marco Coss, said the family was under the impression his father would not be detained on Thursday because he was following his normal check-in as they instructed.

"They were deporting my dad and we weren't expecting that today,'' he said at the vigil. "They detained him and sent him to Nogales, just out of nowhere ... It's definitely unfair.''

Coss said ICE's actions were a sharp departure from past interactions with his father.

“There was nothing like this. They were usually honest and fair, until today when this happened.’’

Virginia Kice, an ICE spokeswoman, issued a statement Friday confirming Ponce was "repatriated overnight by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) based on a removal order issued in January 2011 by the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review."

Ponce had appealed the removal order to the Board of Immigration Appeals in May 2012 but was denied, according to the statement. That October, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reverse the board's decision.

Previous deportation cases

The situation was similar to previous cases of undocumented residents who had been living in the United States: They checked in with federal immigration officials and then were suddenly deported under the Trump administration.

In early February, Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, of Mesa, whose children are U.S. citizens, was removed from the United States and taken to Nogales as she arrived at ICE offices for her routine check-in. She had been living in the United States since 1996.

In March, Juan Carlos Fomperosa Garcia, of Phoenix, the single father of three U.S.-citizen children, showed up for a check-in meeting with ICE officials in Phoenix and was detained and then deported.

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