Two NFL Players Helped To Pay Bail Of Immigrant After ICE Arrested Him For Reading A Poem

The Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) arrested an undocumented student in May

at his home in California after reading a poem that criticizes the operations carried out by that federal agency.

Thanks to the help of strangers: two football players and foundations that defend immigrants

who are in ICE prisons, José Bello could regain his freedom. The samaritans paid Bello's bail of $50,000; the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement.

"For 87 days we had a man away from his freedom and family for reciting a poem. Yesterday he

was able to pay bail. This dehumanizing psychological torture must end. And we can stop it," tweeted Demario Davis, who plays as an intermediate defender (linebacker) of the New Orleans Saints team and cooperated to get the undocumented out of the Mesa Verde center in Bakersfield.

On the morning of May 15, ICE agents arrived at his home in Bakersfield to arrest him after he

attendee'd to a forum organized by the Kern County Board of Supervisors, in which he read a poem entitled "Dear United States." He wrote it after ICE arrested him for the first time to defend immigrants and as a criticism of immigration authorities.

The ACLU office in southern California presented a case on behalf of Bello, claiming that his freedom of expression had

been violated. "The proximity of these two events strongly shows that ICE acted in retaliation against Mr. Bello for his speech expressing opinions against the agency's actions," the ACLU said in the documents.

A judge, however, denied the motion as reported by Univision. "ICE had an objectively reasonable legal justification for re-arresting (Bello)," Judge Sallie Kim wrote in rejecting the ACLU motion. The magistrate, however, noted that such detention by immigration agents was "highly suggestive of an attempted retaliation."