WEST FRANKFORT — A West Frankfort businessman is currently being help in a detention facility near St. Louis after agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement questioned the legality of his U.S. citizenship and arrested him at his home on Feb. 9.

Thirty-eight-year-old Carlos Hernandez Pacheco works as the manager of La Fiesta in West Frankfort. Reports say Pacheco has a wife and three young boys. They are all legal U.S. citizens. Family and friends, along with his lawyer, are working to bring Pacheco home.

According to sister station WQRL-FM, the arrest goes back to legal trouble Pacheco was going through over 10 years ago. The report says part of Pacheco’s detainment involved a DUI conviction that he had then and has since done his supervision, paid his fines and everything necessary in the matter.

Pacheco has had his citizenship papers filled out for several years and is waiting to earn permanent residency.

Friends say Pacheco is in good spirits, hope he can return to his family soon and get things going on his citizenship.