ICE deports teen soccer star with no record after graduation, shocking community

For 19-year-old Emerson Colindres, it was supposed to be a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

For 19-year-old Emerson Colindres, it was supposed to be a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It turned out to be a trap. He never returned home.

Colindres, who came to the United States with his family more than a decade ago to escape the violence in their native Honduras, was detained by ICE on June 4, just days after the talented student and soccer player graduated high school in Cincinnati. Colindres, whose teammates said was one of the greatest players they met on the field, dreamed of continuing his sports career and hoped to attend a university. He did not have a criminal record, according to the Butler County Sheriff’s Office.

In the span of two weeks, Colindres went from celebrating his graduation to being detained by ICE to then being deported to a country where he has not lived since he was 8 years old.

He is not the only law-abiding high school student who has been targeted by ICE. Immigration enforcement around the country has also swept up students in New York City, as well as in Milford, Massachusetts.

“Sadly, he’s not the only one. I think there are a lot of Emersons in the same situation right now,” Bryan Williams, Colindres’ coach at the Cincy Galaxy soccer club, said ahead of the young man’s deportation. “They’re all the same story, someone who was here doing everything they were asked, trying to make a better life for themselves and their family, and now they’re being detained somewhere.”