Mexican man deported after living in sanctuary inside Durham church has died
Samuel Oliver-Bruno, a man who lived in sanctuary at a Durham church in 2018, has died, the church’s pastor confirmed Tuesday.
“Our dear friend and brother in Christ Jesus, Samuel Oliver-Bruno, has passed,” Crystal DesVignes, the pastor of CityWell United Methodist Church in Durham, said in an email.
Oliver-Bruno was in a car accident in Veracruz, Mexico, in April 2020 after being deported by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in November 2018.
“This week he ultimately succumbed to the injuries he sustained during that car accident,” DesVignes said. “We ask for all to continue to lift his family in prayer during this most difficult time.”
Oliver-Bruno first moved to the United States in 1994. His wife, Julia Perez Pacheco, followed the next year with a work permit. They have a son, Daniel Oliver Perez.
At some point Oliver-Bruno returned to Mexico. In May 2014, he tried to re-enter the United States to be with his wife, who was undergoing open heart surgery, The News & Observer reported. This time he was arrested. He pleaded guilty to illegally entering the country, federal court documents show, but received temporary stays that allowed him to remain.
CityWell sheltered Oliver-Bruno for a year after he was ordered to return to Mexico by ICE. By then, he had lived in the United States on and off for more than 20 years. Federal and North Carolina databases do not show any other convictions for him, The N&O reported.
Taken into custody
On Nov. 23, 2018, Oliver-Bruno left the church in Durham for an appointment with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Morrisville. He was arrested shortly after entering the building.
A large crowd accompanied Oliver-Bruno to his appointment to support him, but also to be witnesses if he was arrested, The N&O reported. Oliver-Bruno led them in a prayer, before entering the building with his son; CityWell’s former lead pastor, Cleve May; and his legal team.
After immigration agents arrested him, many of his supporters tried to block the van taking Oliver-Bruno to the Wake County Detention Center. He was then taken to Stewart Detention Center, an immigration jail in Lumpkin, Georgia, a few days later.
Oliver-Bruno’s arrest garnered national attention with May telling The N&O that Oliver-Bruno was “ambushed” while trying to follow immigration instructions. U.S. Reps. David Price and G.K. Butterfield called on then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen to release him. Durham’s city and county elected leaders also decried the arrest.
This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 5:54 PM.
