Man's Been In ICE Custody For 3 Months Since Monmouth County Traffic Stop

Getting stopped for driving without a license usually means a 15-minute traffic stop, a ticket and a court appearance. For Humberto Cantero, it means being in custody for three months.

His family has been fighting to free the Roselle man from an Elizabeth detention center ever since Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him in February. They can't believe Cantero, an unauthorized immigrant, would be detained for so long when he presents no threat.

"We need our elected officials to kick ICE out of our jails, schools and state agencies," Cantero's sister, Mayra Galicia, said in a prepared statement from a pro-immigration advocacy group, Make the Road Action in NJ.

In a Tuesday report from Mundo Hispanico, family members renewed that plea, standing outside the Elizabeth Detention Center and requesting his release. They've made similar public pleas outside the detention center since he was detained.

"He's not a delinquent," Cantero's wife, Araceli, told nj.com and other reporters in Spanish. "He's here for his family. He's a hardworking person."

Efforts to obtain comment from a spokesman for ICE were not immediately successful. President Trump has signed executive orders to crack down on illegal immigration, leading to the detainment of many people who have been considered a threat to public safety.

Cantero, 34, had an arrest warrant for failing to provide for a dependent out of Union County when Marlboro officers pulled him over for a traffic violation earlier this year, according to the nj.com report. Cantero, who was driving to work at his construction job, was lodged in Monmouth County Jail to await pickup by Union County authorities.

An immigration judge, however, denied Cantero bond at a hearing in March. As a result, Cantero, who is from Mexico, has been detained for 109 days, even though he's considered the breadwinner of a family consisting of his wife and four daughters, who are between 5 and 15 years old, according to Mundo Hispanico.

Cantero is in a process of requesting "immigration relief" to avoid deportation and will have his next hearing next month, according to the publication.

Make the Road Action in NJ, meanwhile, has held up the detainment as an example of "unprecedented attacks on our fundamental rights and values" since the Trump administration crackdown began soon after the president was sworn in on Jan. 20.

The group called on Gov. Chris Christie to order local jails to refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to continue holding individuals in local jails after they are ordered released.

"This platform lays out a clear plan for how the Garden State can fight back against the federal administration's attacks on immigrants and workers," said Olga Armas, a leader of the Make the Road Action.

"We are a state of immigrants and working people and we will exercise our power at the ballot box and in our neighborhoods to make New Jersey a leader in fighting back against a politics of hate that seeks to divide our families, take away our workplace protections and deprive us of health care."

Photo courtesy of Humberto Cantero's family