Emerson Colindres, a promising 19-year-old soccer player from Ohio, faced deportation to Honduras on June 18, 2023, after a lengthy and traumatic experience with the U.S. immigration system. Colindres had spent more than a decade living in the United States. Then, out of the blue, he was thrust into the middle of a high-profile legal fight that resulted in his expulsion from the country. His family originally fled to the U.S. from Honduras in 2014. They came undocumented, escaping from gang intimidation that drove them to seek asylum for their own protection.
Colindres first came to the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant at just eight years old. He’s originally from Cincinnati and was an all-star soccer player at Gilbert A. Dater High School in Westwood. His goals once focused on going pro in soccer—a dream that remains up in the air after his deportation. Given that he had no criminal record, his prolonged detention and removal is even more baffling to many, including the court.
On June 4, Colindres went to his regular check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Cincinnati. To his shock, he was suddenly arrested. “You were in there 22 hours in the cell doing nothing,” he stated, describing the experience of being held in pre-deportation detention. Instead, he spent the better part of his day cramped in a jail cell. This experience had him feeling “mentally draining.”
After more than two years of abusive detention in Cincinnati, Colindres was moved to an ICE jail in Louisiana. He described being handcuffed on his entire deportation flight. “The whole flight I was handcuffed like we’re some big criminals,” he said, emphasizing the psychological toll the experience took on him.
Earlier this year, a judge rejected his family’s asylum petition. This decision led to a final removal order. Having not lived in Honduras for nearly 11 years, Colindres expressed feelings of trauma about returning to a place that is unfamiliar to him. “To me, it was kind of more traumatizing because I haven’t been to my birth country in years,” he explained.
Even with these obstacles, Colindres has not lost faith in his future in Honduras. His goal now is to make the local soccer teams through open tryouts and to take those steps further down the road of becoming a pro athlete. “Hopefully I get to see them soon cause I really miss them a lot,” he said, reflecting on his family and the life he left behind.
What’s happening with Emerson Colindres today is changing quickly. It’s testimony that raises important questions about our immigration policies and how they treat dynamic young people pursuing their dreams. The community in Cincinnati and beyond is left to grapple with the implications of his deportation and what it means for others in similar circumstances.