{"id":827182,"date":"2026-07-27T15:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T15:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/827182\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T15:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T15:24:08","slug":"first-kenyan-to-play-in-nfl-deported-under-trump-immigration-crackdown-ice-us-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/827182\/","title":{"rendered":"First Kenyan to play in NFL deported under Trump immigration crackdown | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former rugby star who became the first Kenyan to play in the NFL<\/a>, was deported in June for a visa overstay and multiple arrests, according to federal immigration authorities.<\/p>\n

Daniel Adongo, 37, spent two seasons as a linebacker for the Indianapolis Colts<\/a>, playing twice, and was cut in 2015 after facing domestic violence allegations. His visa expired in 2016, but he remained in the US, a press statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis dangerous individual was clearly a threat to the community, which is now safer since he\u2019s been removed,\u201d said a statement<\/a> attributed to Douglas Thompson, ICE Chicago\u2019s assistant field office director.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who violate immigration law are held equally accountable, including former professional athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adongo\u2019s deportation in June, following the signing of a removal order by a federal judge in March, is the latest high-profile case in the campaign of mass expulsions of undocumented people that Donald Trump has pursued through his second presidency.<\/p>\n

According to the ICE statement, he was arrested multiple times in Indiana over the previous nine years \u201cfor crimes including felony intimidation, battery and disorderly conduct\u201d. The statement did not address why he was not deported for the visa overstay.<\/p>\n

The agency cited a criminal mischief with damage conviction in 2020, for which he was sentenced to a year in jail. A report<\/a> in the Indianapolis Star in December 2015 said police responded twice in three months to domestic violence calls to his home, which immediately preceded the Colts\u2019 decision to let him go.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the player, however, say his only conviction was a misdemeanor \u2013 and that the charges that led to his most recent arrest were dismissed.<\/p>\n

Additionally, they maintain Adongo spent months in harsh conditions in immigration detention, during which they say his serious mental illness worsened.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoctors and social workers who worked with him believe he may also be living with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE \u2013 an untreatable brain disease caused by repeated head impacts, common among athletes who played contact sports,\u201d a statement accompanying a petition<\/a> that had tried to prevent his deportation said.<\/p>\n

ICE, it said, never confirmed whether Adongo received mental health treatment during his incarceration. \u201cThis is not justice,\u201d the petition said. \u201cHe needed a doctor, not a cell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Nairobi in 1989, Adongo played professional rugby union in South Africa before moving to the US in 2013 when he was signed by the Colts as an outside linebacker with no football experience. He played in two games before suffering a series of injury setbacks.<\/p>\n

The player\u2019s father, Joe Adongo, spoke<\/a> in 2020 of the mental challenges his son was experiencing after video appeared on social media of him looking dishevelled and with multiple nasal piercings.<\/p>\n

The ICE statement said Adonga had faced criminal charges filed under the Laken Riley Act<\/a>, named for a murdered Georgia nursing student, which requires the detention without bond for undocumented immigrants accused of certain crimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former rugby star who became the first Kenyan to play in the NFL, was deported in June…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-827182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}