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Federal officials acknowledged Wednesday that Juan Manuel Montes’ protected immigration status was not due to expire until 2018, correcting themselves on one point in a case that thrust the 23-year-old Mexican national into the center of a heated debate on illegal immigration.

They had said Tuesday that Montes’ protected status ended two years ago.

At the same time, Department of Homeland Security officials denied Montes’ claim in a federal lawsuit that he had been deported, saying Wednesday he had voluntarily left the U.S. for Mexico.

That could make him ineligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which shields young people from deportation who were brought to the country as children and stayed illegally.

Read the full story on LATimes.com. 

Read the statement from Montes’ attorneys.