NEAR TOLEDO, Ore. - The family attempting to adopt a child at the center of deportation battle notified KATU News Friday that they have finalized adoption proceedings.

Steve and Angela Brandt said in a phone call to KATU News that a judge signed paperwork on Friday making the adoption of Gabriel Allred, 2, official. The Brandts also have four other children and live near Toledo, located near the Oregon coast.

Allred was at the center of a politically charged deportation case that pitted his then-foster parents, the Brandts, against Oregon's human services agency, who wanted to send Gabriel to live with his grandmother in Mexico.

The story made national headlines and even involved Governor Kulongoski.

The Oregon agency twice decided to send Gabirel Allred to his biological grandmother in Mexico, but the decisions were met with negative responses both from the public and the Oregonian newspaper. Allred had never met his grandmother nor had he ever been in Mexico.

Allred, then 2, had been cared for by the Brandts since he was four months old.

Both of Allred's biological parents had drug convictions and had lost custody of the boy shortly after his birth, but both said they supported adoption by the Brandts rather than deportation to Mexico.

Eventually, the grandmother visited Gabriel and the Brandts in Oregon and after she better understood the situation, she ended the custody battle.

"This agreement gives Gabriel the best of all worlds," said Dr. Bruce Goldberg, director of the Oregon Department of Human Services, after an agreement was reached in December of 2007.

Goldberg and Gov. Ted Kulongoski had asked Bryan Johnston, the agency's interim assistant director for its Children, Adults and Families Division, to finally settle the volatile custody dispute.

Adoption proceedings by the Brandts then commenced.