An Ohio high school graduate, Emerson Colindres, 19, is facing deportation to Honduras just weeks after earning his diploma.
Colindres, who arrived in the United States at age eight in 2014, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a routine check-in at an ICE facility in Blue Ash, Ohio.
A Long Asylum Fight
The Colindres family sought asylum after fleeing extortion threats from Honduran gangs. However, their case was rejected, and a final removal order was issued in 2023. Despite participating in ICE’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP), which allows parole-like monitoring instead of detention, the family had never been explicitly ordered to leave—until now.
“Emerson’s One of the Best Kids I’ve Ever Met”
Bryan Williams, Colindres’s soccer coach at Cincy Galaxy, said ICE agents appeared to be waiting for him at his check-in.
“They informed us that they were detaining and deporting Emerson only,” Williams told a local ABC affiliate. “No explanation was given.”
Williams added: “Emerson’s one of the best kids I’ve ever met. We don’t know what we can do, but we’re doing whatever we can.”
DHS Defends Deportation
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statement said, “Those arrested had executable final orders of removal by an immigration judge and had not complied with that order,” adding that “If you are in the country illegally and a judge has ordered you to be removed, that is precisely what will happen.”
DHS also noted that ISAP “exists to ensure compliance with release conditions.”
Teammates Rally for Emerson
On Sunday, Colindres’s teammates gathered outside Butler County Jail, wearing “Free Emerson” T-shirts, and spoke to him by phone. “I was just… living life, minding my own business,” Colindres said. “And now I’m here.”
Describing the conditions, he said, “It’s just awful. We only go out once a day—sometimes twice. [It’s] not a life someone who didn’t do anything should be living.”
Community Cries for Justice
Teammate Joshua Williams said, “He didn’t do anything wrong. And they just took him away.” He added, “I wish I hugged him longer. Because I didn’t know that would be the last time I was going to see him.”
Another teammate, Preston Robinson, echoed that sentiment: “It’s not like he had a say in whether he could or couldn’t come. I just wanted to be here to show that I support him.”
Family’s Plea to the President
Colindres’s mother, Ada Bell Baquedano-Amador, directly appealed to then-President Donald Trump during the protest: “Please, Mr Trump—because I’m talking directly to you—have pity on us. Have compassion.”
She told The Cincinnati Enquirer she now has 30 days to self-deport to Honduras. “You can’t imagine what I’m feeling,” she said. “How is my son going to make it over there? He doesn’t know anything and the country where we come from is very insecure… It’s not just.”
Stay tuned to developments from this tragic story with us on Que Onda Magazine.