{"id":829147,"date":"2026-07-27T12:13:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/829147\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T12:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:13:14","slug":"us-deports-kenyan-former-nfl-player-daniel-adongo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/829147\/","title":{"rendered":"US deports Kenyan former NFL player Daniel Adongo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"He is wearing his American football uniform, but the image is cut just below his shoulders. He is wearing a white helmet with a blue stripe down the middle and a white tshirt with blue detailing\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"546\" height=\"306\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/004736e926338419589a1a39479d3255.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Daniel Adongo played for the Indianapolis Colts from 2013 to 2015 [Icon Sportswire via Getty Images]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A former NFL player from Kenya was deported last month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency said, citing an overstayed visa, multiple arrests and prison time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Daniel Adongo, 37, who was a linebacker for the Indianapolis Colts for two years, overstayed his visa in 2016, the year after his NFL career ended, according to the US authorities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In a statement on Saturday, ICE &#8211; which dubbed him a &#8220;dangerous individual&#8221; &#8211; said he was ordered to leave the US on 23 March, and was removed from the country on 20 June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Adongo, a rugby player at the time, made headlines in 2013 when he switched to American football in the US, having never taken part in the sport before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Those who violate immigration law are held equally accountable, including former professional athletes,&#8221; ICE Chicago assistant field office director Douglas Thompson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;This dangerous individual was clearly a threat to the community, which is now safer since he&#8217;s been removed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Adongo has made no comment on the allegations against him and it is not clear where he was deported to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to the ICE statement, the former sportsman had been arrested &#8220;multiple times&#8221; over the past 10 years &#8220;for crimes including felony intimidation, battery and disorderly conduct&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">His post-NFL life also saw him spend time in a psychiatric hospital, according to US newspaper the Indianapolis Star.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">His mother and lawyers have been quoted as saying that he suffered from mental illness and injury, possibly from his time as an athlete.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In 2017 &#8211; after being charged with intimidation and criminal mischief &#8211; the newspaper said a judge ordered a psychiatric examination of Adongo to determine if he was capable of standing trial; he was ruled incompetent and was sent to a psychiatric hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The trial was rescheduled multiple times including for not passing another psychiatric examination.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Then in 2020, he was convicted of &#8220;criminal mischief with damage&#8221;, and sentenced to 364 days in prison, ICE said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The agency added that his most recent charges fell under the US&#8217;s Laken Riley Act, which requires undocumented immigrants, who are arrested for theft or violent crimes, to be held in prison pending trial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">US President Donald Trump signed the bill into law on 29 January, 2025, shortly after starting his second term.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The bill was named after Laken Riley &#8211; a Georgian nursing student who was murdered by a Venezuelan man a year earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">More than 40 Kenyans have been arrested by ICE, according to the US Department of Homeland Security website.<\/p>\n<p>You may also be interested in:<img alt=\"To the right of the banner a woman with sunglasses on her head and wearing a denim jacket and yellow T-shirt looks down at her mobile phone. A graphic for BBC News Africa in black and red is on the left of the image which has a pale golden brown background.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"295\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/e11b47016236f642dfb0a2c49eb6a270.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Go to <a data-ylk=\"slk:BBCAfrica.com;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"http:\/\/bbcafrica.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">BBCAfrica.com<\/a> for more news from the African continent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Follow us on Twitter <a data-ylk=\"slk:@BBCAfrica;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCAfrica\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">@BBCAfrica<\/a>, on Facebook at <a data-ylk=\"slk:BBC Africa;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BBCnewsafrica\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">BBC Africa<\/a> or on Instagram at <a data-ylk=\"slk:bbcafrica;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbcafrica\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">bbcafrica<\/a><\/p>\n<p>BBC Africa podcasts<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Adongo played for the Indianapolis Colts from 2013 to 2015 [Icon Sportswire via Getty Images] A former&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,289283,289277,289650,1732,514,289651,289280,82,289652],"class_list":["post-829147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-criminal-mischief","tag-daniel-adongo","tag-douglas-thompson","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-nfl","tag-psychiatric-examination","tag-rugby-player","tag-sports","tag-us-immigration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}