By TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA
tolorunnipa@MiamiHerald.com

In the week after Jesús and Guillermo Reyes were detained at home and threatened with deportation to Venezuela, college students rallied in Kendall, Venezuelan community leaders called politicians, lawyers mobilized and U.S. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida asked that the brothers ``be given all due consideration.''

The pressure worked. The brothers walked out of an immigrant detention center in Broward on Friday, a move they said would not have been possible had friends, relatives, politicians and lawyers not responded so strongly.

'SPIRIT OF SUPPORT'

"They truly showed that spirit of support during this difficult time,'' Jesús said about an hour after he and his brother were freed.

The release of the Reyes brothers capped a week of turmoil in the Venezuelan exile community and among many students at Miami Dade College who rallied behind the youths and launched a campaign to win their release. Jesús is still a student at the college's Kendall Campus and Guillermo recently graduated there.

Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, which represented the brothers and actively sought their release, said that after making calls and writing e-mails to local and national officials for days, she got a call from Washington early Friday afternoon advising her that the brothers would be freed.

Nicole Navas, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that the brothers had been "granted deferred action for one year,'' giving them 12 months to stay in the United States before their case goes before an immigration judge.

ICE officers arrived at the Reyes' home on Nov. 12 telling the brothers' father, Jesús Reyes Sr., that the family, which left Venezuela nine years ago, could no longer stay in the United States.

As immigration officers detained Guillermo, 25, and Jesús, 21, their father managed to leave to contact his attorney and warn his wife and his son, Marcos, at work at the time.

The brothers' parents and Marcos, who went into hiding after Jesús and Guillermo were detained, learned Friday that immigration authorities had agreed to revisit their petition for asylum, which had been denied previously, Little said.

The Reyes family will be able to come out of hiding and remain in the United States while the petition is reviewed.

"My first reaction is one of happiness and surprise,'' Reyes Sr. said. ``I was told that I'm now able to go to my own home -- that I can go back and I don't have to be in hiding.''

Guillermo and Jesús said their release reinforced their belief that the justice system could be fair to all.

"I've always had faith that justice was going to be done right,'' said Guillermo, who broke down in joyful tears when he learned he was being released. "The U.S. is my home and the place where all my dreams have come true. This has been another dream that has come true.''

Jesús, who is currently studying criminal justice at Miami Dade College, said he hoped to become a congressman and work on immigration issues.

"It is my goal to influence this government in a good way so that things like this don't happen again,'' he said.

THREATENING CALLS

The Reyes family fled from Venezuela a decade ago after they began to receive threatening phone calls in the middle of the night. Reyes Sr. said he had joined a movement against Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez and was distributing anti-government pamphlets.

The family indicated that immigration officers had a final order of deportation dating to 2005 after their original asylum petition was denied.

Guillermo recently received a computer-animation degree at Miami Dade College and Jesús was the 2007-08 president of the Kendall Campus Student Government Association.

The Reyes's case is similar to that of Juan and Alex Gómez, Colombian brothers who almost got deported in 2007 but were spared after classmates and friends launched a national campaign on their behalf.

The Reyes brothers said they were focusing on returning to normal family life, and not thinking about what will happen after the deportation deferment expires.

"The first thing I'm definitely going to do is go to church and thank almighty God,'' Jesús said.