MILWAUKEE, USA

A Mexican man who took a dead cousin's identity to pose as a U.S. citizen in order to become a police officer was deported from the United States on Sunday.

Oscar Ayala-Cornejo, 25, was arrested May 31 after an anonymous tip and was charged with falsely representing himself as an American citizen.

He accepted a plea deal, agreeing to be deported, and resigned from the Milwaukee police force. A judge sentenced Ayala last month to a year of probation.

Darryl Morin, special projects coordinator for the League of United Latin American Citizens, said Ayala left on a flight out of Milwaukee on Sunday morning. Dense fog had forced the cancellation of Ayala's flight on Saturday.

He was flown to Guadalajara, Mexico, where his family moved from in 1992.

In a cell phone interview as he arrived at the Milwaukee airport on Saturday, Ayala said he was sad to leave his family and friends but was optimistic. He plans to stay with relatives in Guadalajara and study computer engineering.

"I enjoyed my time here and I have no regrets," he said.

Being a police officer was his dream job.

"I love this country," he said Saturday. "I love everything it has to offer."

Ayala said in November that his father helped him change his identity to Jose Morales, a cousin who was a U.S. citizen but who died as a child of stomach cancer.

He had told his father he wanted to become a police officer after the department recruited at his high school.

He said he would have had to go back to Mexico when he became an adult to wait years before becoming a citizen, and his father didn't want to separate the family. His sister was married to a citizen, his brother was born in this country and his parents were on their way to becoming permanent residents.

His father died of leukemia in 2004, before he could see his son become a police officer that December.

Ayala doesn't hold his father responsible.

"The cards that we were dealt just weren't the best ones," he has said. "If I wouldn't have done this, I would still be in Mexico waiting to see if I could ever see my family."

His 27-year-old brother, Alex, was fired from the police department in September for lying about his brother's identity, but he won his job back this month, with a 10-day suspension without pay.