A soccer tournament in California is helping immigrants heal after ICE detention

After hearing from detainees about the power of playing soccer, a legal aid group convened an annual tournament where former detainees and advocates have found community.

The first time Pedro Ayón and Serafín Andrade played soccer together was when they were both in ICE detention at a center in McFarland, California, a few years ago.

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Ayón, born in Mexico and raised in the U.S., spent eight months in detention in 2021. Since no visits were allowed due to the pandemic, his only option to see people was to go out to the yard to kick a ball around with his fellow inmates.

“When we were allowed recreation for an hour, half an hour, we often went out and that was a way to feel free, to enjoy ourselves, to be able to share and in any way forget about the situation we were in,” he said. “It’s a ball, right? But it does things you wouldn’t think of — being able to heal people just by kicking the ball around.”