Jose Bello, the Bakersfield College student who was arrested and taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents has been bailed out.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Bello had his $50,000 bail paid for in part by NFL players Josh Norman and Demario Davis; the New York Immigrant Freedom Fund; and the National Bail Fund Network.
Bello was arrested in May and placed into the Mesa Verde ICE Detention Center. He was detained after reciting a poem called "Dear America" during the Kern County Board of Supervisors meeting. According to the ACLU he was freed Monday.
"Jose Bello was exercising a fundamental right that we pride ourselves on as Americans,” Norman, who plays for the Washington Redskins, said. “If he was detained for reciting a peaceful poem then we should really ask ourselves, are our words truly free? This is America right? Where the 1st Amendment is freedom of speech unless I missed the memo somewhere. He was exercising that right.”
On Tuesday, Davis tweeted about he and Norman's efforts along with other organizations to help bring Jose home.
It took the joint efforts of NYIFF (a @BKBailFund program) @bailfundnetwork@UFWF @ACLUSoCal myself & @J_No24 to get Jose home to his family. But support doesn’t always reach everyone in time. Thank you to these orgs and the countless others who continue to fight for freedoms.
— Demario Davis #56 (@demario__davis) August 13, 2019
