Downingtown, Pennsylvania, man released from ICE custody after months in detention center

A man from Downingtown, Pennsylvania, who spent months in ICE custody has been released. 

Carlos Della Valle, who spent 258 days in custody, was released Tuesday from a detention center in Louisiana. 

Many in the community rallied for his release after he was detained in August. 

Della Valle, who immigrated from Mexico, had lived in Chester County since 1997, where he and his wife, a U.S. citizen, raised their son. 

Della Valle and his wife, Angela, had an emotional virtual news conference Wednesday. 

"The reason that I'm here, that I'm still here, it's because everybody, what everybody's been doing for us … I'm just honored. I'm full of gratitude. I can feel the love," Carlos Della Valle said.

He said he loves the United States and still hopes to become an American citizen. 

Supporters previously said Carlos Della Valle first fled cartel violence in Mexico as a teenager. His sister-in-law, Deanna Brown, told CBS News Philadelphia last year that he was caught in Colorado at age 19, and federal officials had him sign a document agreeing not to return. Brown said he did not have a translator at the time and did not understand what he was signing.

"He did not speak English, so he signed this piece of paper not knowing what it was," Brown said. "And then they deported him, and he came right back, because he knew that he was trying to escape crime and poverty."

Brown added that although he illegally re-entered the U.S., her brother-in-law has since built what she called an honest life, working steadily, paying taxes and raising a family in Chester County.

An online fundraiser for the family raised more than $100,000.