U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has granted 43-year old Francis Anwana a one-year reprieve of deportation to Nigeria.
Anwana came to Michigan when he was 13 to attend a school for the deaf, and he has lived here every since.
U.S. Congressman Dan Kildee says it's an extremely positive development.
"He (Anwana) is a Christian so he would face some discrimination (in Nigeria)," says Kildee. "He is disabled, he's completely unable to communicate with anybody there, and there is nobody there that he knows. So this would have been tantamount to a death sentence and I believe that the ICE officials must have come to that conclusion."
Kildee has introduced a bill in Congress to grant permanent legal residency to Anwana. He says he'll try to get the bill advanced during the year's stay of deportation, but says it's very hard to get colleagues on the other side of the aisle interested in helping with such matters heard in the current political climate.
