A former rugby star who turned the primary Kenyan to play in the NFL, was deported in June for a visa overstay and a number of arrests, in accordance to federal immigration authorities.
Daniel Adongo, 37, spent two seasons as a linebacker for the Indianapolis Colts, taking part in twice, and was lower in 2015 after dealing with home violence allegations. His visa expired in 2016, however he remained in the US, a press assertion from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) mentioned.
“This dangerous individual was clearly a threat to the community, which is now safer since he’s been removed,” mentioned a statement attributed to Douglas Thompson, ICE Chicago’s assistant discipline workplace director.
“Those who violate immigration law are held equally accountable, including former professional athletes.”
Adongo’s deportation in June, following the signing of a elimination order by a federal choose in March, is the most recent high-profile case in the marketing campaign of mass expulsions of undocumented those who Donald Trump has pursued by way of his second presidency.
According to the ICE assertion, he was arrested a number of instances in Indiana over the earlier 9 years “for crimes including felony intimidation, battery and disorderly conduct”. The assertion didn’t deal with why he was not deported for the visa overstay.
The company cited a legal mischief with harm conviction in 2020, for which he was sentenced to a yr in jail. A report in the Indianapolis Star in December 2015 mentioned police responded twice in three months to home violence calls to his dwelling, which instantly preceded the Colts’ resolution to let him go.
Supporters of the participant, nonetheless, say his solely conviction was a misdemeanor – and that the costs that led to his most up-to-date arrest had been dismissed.
Additionally, they preserve Adongo spent months in harsh circumstances in immigration detention, throughout which they are saying his severe psychological sickness worsened.
“Doctors and social workers who worked with him believe he may also be living with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE – an untreatable brain disease caused by repeated head impacts, common among athletes who played contact sports,” an announcement accompanying a petition that had tried to forestall his deportation mentioned.
ICE, it mentioned, by no means confirmed whether or not Adongo obtained psychological well being remedy throughout his incarceration. “This is not justice,” the petition mentioned. “He needed a doctor, not a cell.”
Born in Nairobi in 1989, Adongo performed skilled rugby union in South Africa earlier than transferring to the US in 2013 when he was signed by the Colts as an outdoor linebacker with no soccer expertise. He performed in two video games earlier than struggling a sequence of damage setbacks.
The participant’s father, Joe Adongo, spoke in 2020 of the psychological challenges his son was experiencing after video appeared on social media of him trying dishevelled and with a number of nasal piercings.
The ICE assertion mentioned Adonga had confronted legal expenses filed under the Laken Riley Act, named for a murdered Georgia nursing scholar, which requires the detention with out bond for undocumented immigrants accused of sure crimes.
