A CAMPAIGN has been launched to prevent an American being deported from East Lancashire – to Los Angeles.

Sam Wright, 23, has spent the past two years looking after his sick mum in Pendle.

But on Monday officers from the UK Border Agency swooped on their home in Rowland Avenue in Nelson and detained him.

He is currently in a holding centre at Heathrow airport awaiting deportation next week.

Now more than 400 people have signed a petition and Pendle's MP Andrew Stephenson has pledged his support to Sam, who has settled into the local community.

Sam arrived in the UK in 2009 on a visitors visa to help his mum Rosaria Motyka who suffers from a chronic illness which causes pain all over her body.

But, despite repeated requests for a permanent visa, immigration officials threw out his application stating the relationship was not compassionate or compelling enough.

Rosaria, who is from Modesto in central California, said: “Me and Sam have a uniquely close bond, like no other mother and son I know.

“When I first arrived in England I was having trouble with the culture shock and had health problems, but it has benefited me so much having my son here.”

Rosaria moved to the UK in 2006 after she married Nelson man Paul following a whirlwind romance.

The couple had met on the internet and were married within 26 days of first speaking to each other.

Sam was studying at college in the US at the time, but he decided to come to stay with his mum and Paul as she suffers from Fibromyalgia.

As well as suffering from physical ailments, Rosaria also has depression and sometimes spends days in bed.

She said Sam, who has studied massage therapy, provides her with both physical and emotional support.

And she said if Sam was deported he would have nowhere to go and and could end up homeless.

She said: "I am heartbroken by this decision. Having Sam here makes my life complete, but now they want to bulldoze through my family and split us up.

“I just want my family here, they can’t take my son away.

"Sam’s home is here now, he doesn’t really have any family back home. He never sees his dad. We are all here for him.”

Sam and Rosaria have become heavily involved in the community during their time in the UK, even setting up a neighbourhood watch scheme.

She said: “People told me this area was one of the worst in Nelson, but I like it.

"We have set up a neighbourhood watch scheme which Sam has helped with.

“He wants to be involved in the community. He has been unable to work since he arrived here because of the visa, and when he tried to do voluntary work he was told he couldn’t do that either.”

Sam has also helped on the family’s allotment and spent time with his girlfriend Beth, who he has been with since October 2009.

Beth said: “Sam is cherished greatly by many people and will be sorely missed if he is removed from the UK, I would be lost without him.

“He is incredibly popular and has made many friends while he has been here.”

Rosaria said she was shocked that somebody such as death crash driver Aso Mohammed Ibrahim, who left 12-year-old Darwen girl Amy Houston dying in the street after he knocked her down in 2003, was allowed to stay in the UK, but Sam wasn’t.

She said: “It seems completely ridiculous that he is allowed to stay for his family after what happened, but Sam is to be deported. How can that be fair?”

Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson has written to Immigration minister Damian Green urging him to intervene in the case.

He said: "I am hoping to get this case resolved on compassionate grounds as his mother it is not in the best of health.

“Sam is a popular lad and has been involved heavily in the community with things like the neighbourhood watch scheme.

“He is certainly not a drain on the state and he fits well in the Nelson community.

“I was hoping the UK Border Agency would take a common sense approach to this case but that hasn’t happened, and the Government have now accelerated the process of removing overstayers.

“But we are still fighting the case and I have now written to the immigration minister Damian Green pressing Sam’s case.

"The decision to reject Sam’s application and appeals were on legal technicalities, not insurmountable problems.

“We are trying everything we can to resolve this before Sam gets deported, as it is a lot harder to do when someone has been deported.”

A spokesman for the UK Border Agency said: "We can confirm that Mr Wright is currently detained pending removal."