Jan. 14, 2026, 2:13 p.m. CTRicardo Paz, a Red Bank man known for his landscaping cart decorated with American flags, was detained by ICE on Jan. 6.His attorney is fighting for his release but has encountered obstacles. She said he lives here legally.He was being held at Delaney Hall Immigration Detention Center in Newark.RED BANK -- Ricardo Paz, known for pulling his landscaping cart decorated with American flags by bicycle through town, was one of several people detained by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers in Red Bank on Jan. 6.Paz, who has been in the country for 20 years, had a pending immigration case when he was picked up by ICE, said his attorney, Anne Sedki, who has an office in Jersey City. He was in the United States with legal authorization, Sedki said. "It's unclear at this time what the purpose was for detaining him," Sedki said. "We are not against immigration enforcement. But my client's detention is really unfair and against due process."Paz, 46, was taken to Delaney Hall, an immigratrion detention center in Newark. He was there Tuesday, Jan. 13, but is due to be moved to another detention center in Elizabeth, Sedki said.Sedki has not received a charging document from ICE that would provide an exact reason for his detention, she said."I mean, we're not really sure why ICE decided to to detain him — if this was a random act, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or they have something specific that they want to charge him with," Sedki said. "Either way, I would need to know that in order for me to fight his detention in the immigration court system."Paz also has medical concerns that Sedki is trying to help him get treatment for, she said.Several calls to Delaney Hall were met with a busy signal. ICE has not responded to a request for information from the Asbury Park Press.Paz had a brush with the law in Red Bank 15 years ago that might have led to his detention.Paz was charged with simple assault, a disorderly persons offense, in an incident that occurred on Jan. 15, 2011, at 3:30 p.m. in Red Bank, according to a municipal court record.The court record says the charge was dismissed but provides no other details. There were no fines issued.Sedki could not comment on the matter, but said that ICE has been sifting through both criminal and municipal court records of immigrants.Sedki said Paz worked as a maintenance worker at the Church of Saint Leo the Great in the Lincroft section of Middletown. A spokesperson for Saint Leo confirmed that he had worked there in the past but declined further comment.The ICE sweep on Jan. 6 triggered concern from Councilwoman Kristina Bonatakis at the Red Bank Borough Council's Jan. 8 meeting, although she did not mention Paz directly. She first referred to the killing of protester Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis."I know I'm not the only one in our town who was really disturbed by the news this week —what we saw coming out of Minnesota, certainly, and a tragic death, but also in our own community," she said."We've had whatever you want to call it — apprehensions, disappearances, kidnappings — by ICE in our own town," Bonatakis continued. "I know that people who have never (before) witnessed those things with their own eyes were pretty traumatized by what happened here in Red Bank. I hope we don't normalize that. This is not normal. This is not OK. All of those folks taken were important to our community."Reporter Ken Serrano can be reached at 732-643-4029 or at kserrano@gannettnj.com.