Two professional football players chipped in to bail out an illegal immigrant being held for removal proceedings shortly after a DUI conviction.
Jose Bello, 22, was arrested in May and held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was held for three months because he couldn’t pay the bail, which was set at $50,000.
Bello’s defenders claim he was detained not because of the charge, but because he read a poem at a local government meeting.
Both players are part of the Players Coalition, a nonprofit that seeks criminal justice reform and “social justice.”
“In this month alone, we’ve seen ICE round up a 22-year old father, Jose, because he read a critical poem,” Davis said. “We’ve seen ICE round up nearly 700 people in Mississippi and leave their children without parents, we’ve seen them turn away asylum seekers who will face certain death in their home countries. Is this America? We must say no, and we must start by helping our most vulnerable.”
Norman took to Twitter to tell his followers: “I helped to post a $50,000 bond for a young man detained 87 days for exercising his 1st Amendment right of free speech.”
Bello, who first entered the country as a 3-year-old child with his family in 2000, was asked about the convictions ICE cited after detaining him. He did not deny his criminal history but said: “I’m working really really hard on bettering myself. I’m working every day to become a better person. I just want to be a positive role model to my son.”
ICE arrested Bello in May 2018 but he was released after posting $10,000 bond and his juvenile probation was terminated and his juvenile record was sealed after the court received a number of letters of support for an application for cancellation of removal proceedings.
Bello pleaded no contest to the DUI and was convicted on April 11 this year, serving five days in jail before being released on the requirement he complete a DUI program. He was detained in May because he was still subject to being deported for being illegally in the country.
“The INA further provides that the Attorney General ’shall take into custody‘ any such person who is inadmissible by reason of having committed certain crimes. ICE regards impaired driving as a ’significant misdemeanor’ and has long held the policy that impaired driving triggers administrative arrest,” the judge added.
“ICE had an objectively reasonable legal justification to re-arrest Petitioner—even simply for his arrest for DUI,” she concluded.
“And there is no dispute that ICE has an objectively reasonable legal justification to re-arrest an immigrant already on bond who then is convicted of misdemeanor DUI. The decision to re-arrest Petitioner falls squarely within ICE’s power to enforce the INA and aligns directly with its enforcement priorities.”
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