BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI

In the end, the gifted teen artist did not need the roll-aboard bag he had packed with a few clothes.

Meynardo, the Broward teenager who is fighting deportation with help from classmates and his art teacher, learned Thursday that he won't be forced to go back to his native Mexico just yet.

U.S. Immigration Judge Stephen Mander, exercising his discretionary powers, gave Meynardo, 18, an unexpected six-month reprieve, putting off a hearing on his case until March.

Meynardo and his supporters expressed mixed feelings after the brief hearing in immigration court in downtown Miami.

''I was really nervous. I thought I was going to be detained,'' said the pony-tailed Meynardo, nattily dressed in a dark banker's suit and tie. ``Now I can breathe a little bit.''

Meynardo, who graduated from Coconut Creek High School in June, said he will now enroll at The Art Institute in Weston, a private college-level school that has given him a four-year, $72,000 scholarship.

But Mander's decision wasn't exactly what Meynardo was hoping to hear: He and his lawyer, Jorge Rivera, had asked the judge to close the case, a more-definitive ruling that would allow the young man -- brought illegally to the United States at age 10 by his mother -- to stay in the United States longer.

Mander said he didn't have authority to do so unilaterally because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are seeking to have Meynardo deported.

''They're the prosecutors,'' Mander told Rivera. ``I appreciate the young man's talent and all the effort that has gone into this, but this is a call that needs to be made by them.''

The judge urged Meynardo and his supporters to use the six-month continuance to ''please try to get things worked out with the prosecution.'' He also asked whether they had requested a private bill in Congress that could grant Garcia residency -- a move that could forestall deportation, at least temporarily.

Later Thursday, the teen's supporters said they formally asked U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, who has written letters to immigration officials in support of Meynardo, to file a bill for him.

But Alex Cruz, a spokesman for Ros-Lehtinen, said she doesn't sponsor private bills.

''We have literally thousands of heartbreak, truly sad cases in our district, and we sponsor one, we need to sponsor a thousand. . . ,'' Cruz said in an email. ``However, if another member of Congress, preferably his congressman, does sponsor it, Ileana will gladly support it.''

BROTHERS' CASE

A private bill won a reprieve from deportation last year for two Colombian-born brothers, Juan and Alex Gomez, whose Killian High classmates rallied to their side after they were detained by immigration authorities. Juan Gomez recently enrolled at Georgetown University on a partial scholarship for international students. The Gomez bill, filed by U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, could be heard next year.

Both cases have focused public attention on the plight of thousands of undocumented kids. Each year, an estimated 65,000 teenagers, brought to the country illegally by their parents, graduate from high school and cannot work or continue their studies because of their lack of legal status. Many face deportation.

Meynardo's case drew media attention earlier this year after his art teacher, Jacqueline Sacs, and hundreds of his high school classmates rallied behind him.

''He has real talent, and he has worked very hard,'' said Sacs, who accompanied Garcia to Thursday's hearing.

Meynardo's slender hopes rest on a request for a humanitarian visa based on his artistic ability -- a factor that has won U.S. visas for scores of performers from around the world. But to earn that status, performers usually apply from abroad. Because he is in the country illegally, Meynardo may not qualify, Rivera said.

Meynardo paints on poster board with an airbrush, a technique he taught himself. He first taught himself to draw in pencil in the 10th grade, and says his dream is to help poor children like himself through art.

Meynardo was born into poverty in Oaxaca, Mexico. His father abandoned the family when Meynardo was 4. Three years later, his mother and her boyfriend left for the United States to pick crops in California, leaving the boy behind with relatives. In 2000, she paid a smuggler to sneak him into the United States.

STOPPED AT PORT

Meynardo was picked up by immigration authorities last year when he and a friend were stopped in their car at a security checkpoint at the Port of Miami and were unable to produce identification. His friend was deported, but an immigration judge gave Meynardo a reprieve.