After much community support and letters from Congress to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Benjamin Nunez Marquez has received some good news.

Marquez, known on the island as Nunez, has been granted a stay of deportation for another year by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement until May 6, 2015.

For nearly 15 years, Nunez has worked as a sawyer for Jack and Jan Helsell of Westsound Lumber Company on Orcas Island. In 2008, while taking his ailing 80-year-old neighbor Natalie White to the hospital in Anacortes, Nunez was picked up by Customs and Border Patrol. Lacking proper immigration documentation, he was ordered to be deported. After receiving a year-long stay last year, the Helsells applied for another stay this spring.

Over the last several years, Jack and Jan Helsell hired lawyers and applied for temporary year-long extensions on the deportation so that they could find someone to fill his position at the mill.But the Helsells have yet to find a replacement.

“He’s an important part of the business – we would be struggling to exist without him,” said Pete Helsell, Jack’s nephew who helps to operate the mill

Jack and Pete plan on continuing to find a way for Nunez to stay on the island.

“We are still working on a permanent solution,” said Jack Helsell. “We haven’t given up. The stay gives us another year to hopefully figure it out.”

The next step

According to Senator Kevin Ranker the stay of deportation is just one step in a long journey.

“We’re not done yet,” said Ranker. “We’re moving strategically forward. We don’t want him to be in the same situation a year from now.”

Ranker has been speaking out on behalf of Nunez after an uprising of community support.

“Really this movement is due to the incredible effort of 100s of citizens that wrote letters and made phone calls that made a difference,” said Ranker.

Jack Helsell said he was so thankful for the letters that not only supported Nunez but also the Helsell family.

Other public officials that have taken on the matter include Sen. Patty Murray, Sen. Maria Cantwell, Rep. Rick Larsen and Rep. Jim McDermott. In April they each signed a letter that was sent to the Secretary of Homeland Security asking for another year-long stay for Nunez.

“He is a wonderful member for the community,” added Ranker. “He is the sort of person we want in our community and it’s the right thing to do.”