Benjamin Nunez Marquez is not going to be deported.

At least, not anytime soon.

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

Now he has received work authorization issued from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but he is not eligible for a green card or citizenship, and he may eventually have to return to Mexico.

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.

In addition to the Helsells support many islanders have written letters and called ICE in the hopes of keeping Nunez on American soil.

Jack and Jan Helsell intend to keep the sawmill running and open to new orders for the specialty lumber for which the mill is so well known. Nuñez is now the sawmill manager and will be handling the orders with Jack Helsell.