Filemon Ruiz Cielo Released from Elizabeth Detention Center

He and his wife, Margarita Cielo Balbuena, were arrested by ICE agents in Dover on May 23.

Filemon Ruiz Cielo and Margarita Cielo Balbuena were sent to Elizabeth Detention Center after being stopped by ICE agents on May 23 in Dover.

A Dover man taken into ICE custody with his wife on the way to their Rockaway restaurant was released Monday after more than a month in the Elizabeth Detention Center.

Dover residents Filemon Ruiz Cielo and Margarita Cielo Balbuena were taken into ICE custody around 10 a.m on Saturday, May 23, near the intersection of Park Avenue and Hillcrest Avenue. They were picking up their older son, Osmar, for work at 3 Hermanos, the Mexican restaurant they own in Rockaway.

Cielo Balbuena remains in ICE custody at the Elizabeth facility. ICE has not responded to requests for comment about her status.

Osmar has been managing the restaurant and cooking since his parents' detention. His brother Saul has been helping out at the restaurant and visiting their parents daily.

Osmar said that a hearing for his mother, originally scheduled for July 7, has been moved to July 22.

Filemon Ruiz Cielo's truck was driven to the restaurant after the May altercation. It's been there ever since, with traces of the pepper spray still in the cab.

The brothers will continue to work at the restaurant named after them and their third hermano, Edgar, who died years ago.

"It's all so stressful," Osmar said. "All I want is our parents back home, with our father holding court at his table and our mother cooking in the kitchen. We just want things back to normal. They started this place so we could work together as a family. Now this boat's already sailing, so I can't let it sink."