By MONICA DAVEY

Juan Carlos Hernandez Pacheco, center, after his release Wednesday upon being granted a $3,000 bond by an immigration judge in Missouri. Credit Nick Schnelle for The New York Times

Juan Carlos Hernandez Pacheco, whose small Illinois town rallied around him when he was arrested last month for being in this country without immigration papers, left a detention center here on Wednesday afternoon after posting a $3,000 bond.

An immigration judge granted his release only hours before, during a hearing in Kansas City, Mo., noting that he had received a surprising array of supportive letters about Mr. Hernandez from leaders in West Frankfort, Ill., including the county prosecutor, deputy chief of police and a retired member of the Illinois State Police.

“You don’t typically see this kind of documentation,” the immigration judge, Justin W. Howard, said, adding that he had given “particular weight” to the backing from law enforcement officials.

In a phone call late Wednesday, during a two-hour ride from the detention center to his home in West Frankfort, Mr. Hernandez said he was relieved, tired and grateful.

The ride was in a vehicle lent by a West Frankfort car dealer. Donations had come in to help with the bond.

“I’m amazed by the support I’ve gotten — amazed,” said Mr. Hernandez, 38, who is the longtime manager of La Fiesta, a restaurant in West Frankfort.

Mr. Hernandez’s case — and the way his Southern Illinois region, which voted overwhelmingly for Donald J. Trump, rallied to his side — has drawn a flood of attention, particularly on social media.

Some call him a symbol of the many undocumented immigrants who are threatened by the Trump administration’s promised crackdown but who have contributed to their communities.

Others have questioned the support from West Frankfort’s mostly white residents, given their backing of Mr. Trump and the plight of a far larger universe of undocumented immigrants — beyond Mr. Hernandez.

Still others say Mr. Hernandez, lauded for his charitable efforts and for taking part in civic groups in West Frankfort, broke the law and should be deported.

Though he is out on bond, Mr. Hernandez faces the threat of deportation. Friends say that Mr. Hernandez entered the country from Mexico without permission in the 1990s, and that he applied for legal status but those efforts stalled somewhere along the way.

Government lawyers, who opposed releasing him on bond on Wednesday, noted that he had two convictions for drunken driving in 2007. The government asked the judge to reserve its right to appeal the bond decision.

“More than anything, I’m nervous about how everything’s going to play out,” Mr. Hernandez said.

He appeared at his hearing in Kansas City by video conference from the St. Louis detention center. He said little and was asked few questions.

He had been in custody since Feb. 9, when immigration agents arrested him near the restaurant. He gave his lawyer, Victor Arana, a thumbs up into the video camera upon hearing the news that he would be able to post a bond.

Mr. Arana told the judge that he intended to pursue Mr. Hernandez’s earlier efforts — apparently many years old — to gain legal status.

Mr. Hernandez’s wife got her citizenship late last year, and their three sons are citizens, the lawyer said.

Mr. Hernandez declined to talk about the particulars of his case since it is still open. But he said he was not upset that residents in his region had largely supported Mr. Trump despite his hard stance on immigration.

Most people in town, he said, probably did not know that he was undocumented. Besides, he said, “in this case, I don’t think it was much about immigration. It was more about energy. It is a coal miner town.”

“I’m actually happy that they exercise their right to vote,” he said. “That’s what democracy should be.”

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