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ICE Seizes Guatemalan Arrested By Fairview PD For Harassing, Threatening Mom

A 32-year-old Guatemalan national was seized by ICE agents after Fairview police arrested him for repeatedly violating a restraining order that was granted to his mother.

Jose Santos Bello-Rojas

Jose Santos Bello-Rojas

Photo Credit: FAIRVIEW PD

Borough police initially arrested Jose Santos Bello-Rojas for threatening to kill the woman in late January, Capt. Michael Martic said.

A temporary restraining order issued by a judge in Hackensack was served to Bello-Rojas along with a criminal complaint, at Bergen New Medical Center in Paramus.

Bello-Rojas had been taken there for a psychological evaluation "due to bizarre behavior," the captain said.

He called his mother the following weekend, violating the order and bringing yet another complaint, Martic said.

Bello-Rojas was released the very next day, and almost immediately began texting his mother that he was coming back to the house, the captain said.

Fairview police seized him in her backyard that afternoon, Feb. 6, he said.

This time they sent him to the Bergen County Jail on another contempt charge.

A judge would've likely released Bello-Rojas under New Jersey bail reform laws, but ICE swiftly obtained a detainer, then picked him up last Tuesday, Feb. 7, records show.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement makes such moves whenever immigrants suspected of living illegally in the United States are jailed in New Jersey.

Sheriff Anthony Cureton, who operates the Bergen County Jail, has honored detainer requests for defendants who've been charged with or convicted of felonies but not for those seized solely for possible deportation.

The seized immigrants are brought before judges at hearings in U.S. District Court in Newark to determine whether they'll be deported.

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