(AP) – An effort by a Kansas City group on behalf of a 41-year-old man detained by immigration officials has apparently failed.

Josue Noe Sandoval-Perez was arrested in mid-January in Kansas City and held since Jan. 22 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for immigration violations.

Communities Creating Opportunity, a Kansas City faith-based nonprofit, rallied against his deportation, saying he has a wife and two children. CCO says Sandoval-Perez’s children are in the U.S. legally, while Sandoval-Perez and his wife, were not. Sandoval-Perez had been in the U.S. more than decade.

ICE says that as of late Friday Sandoval-Perez had been turned over to Mexican authorities. ICE says Sandoval-Perez was a deportation priority because he’d re-entered the U.S. illegally after being removed in 1998.

CCO didn’t immediately return a call for comment.