New York, Nov 15 (IANS): A Chinese businesswoman who was held in US immigration custody for two years after serving her eight-month prison sentence for trespassing at former US President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, was deported over the weekend, according to federal authorities.

Yujing Zhang, 35, had finished her sentence and was transferred to immigration custody in early December 2019, Miami Herald reported citing officials with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement as saying.

But she was held at the Glades County Detention Center for three times as long as her prison term mainly because of deportation delays during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Zhang grew so desperate while in immigration custody that she filed a habeas corpus petition in December 2020 to expedite her removal to her native China, to no avail, according to federal court records.

Zhang wrote in English that she had been held, had no money to call her family in China, and needed an attorney to gain her freedom and go home, the report said.

Zhang's legal odyssey began at the end of March 2019, when flew from China to Palm Beach to attend a gala benefit at Mar-a-Lago, where she was arrested in a grey evening dress on a trespassing charge, the report said.

Before trial, she did not tell a magistrate judge that she had about $8,000 in US and Chinese currency in her room at the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, where she was staying while visiting the former President's private club. The agents searched the room and seized her money, but it's unclear if it was returned to her, the report added.

Held in custody without bail, Zhang was found guilty the following September by a Fort Lauderdale federal jury of the trespassing charge and lying to Secret Service agents about what she was doing on the property.