Federal immigration agents removed former Indianapolis Colts linebacker Daniel Ogama Adongo from the United States after he overstayed his visa for nearly a decade and racked up multiple criminal arrests, a case ICE says proves no one gets a pass, not even a former professional athlete.
Adongo, a 37-year-old Kenyan national who once made headlines as a rugby-to-football convert on an NFL roster, was deported from Chicago on June 20 after a Department of Justice immigration judge ordered his removal in March. ICE's Chicago field office carried out the order, capping a case that stretches back to 2016, when Adongo first overstayed his visa, Fox News Digital reported in an exclusive.
The removal fits a pattern the Trump administration has emphasized since taking office: enforcing immigration law against illegal immigrants with criminal records, regardless of public profile or past fame. ICE officials made that point explicitly in Adongo's case.
Adongo came to the United States after being recruited as a rugby player. He had played rugby in New Zealand in 2012 before the Colts signed him as a linebacker. He spent two seasons in Indianapolis, from 2013 until 2015.
After his NFL career ended, Adongo's legal status lapsed. ICE says he overstayed his visa beginning in 2016 and never left the country.
What followed was a string of run-ins with law enforcement. ICE stated that Adongo had been arrested multiple times over the last decade. In 2020, he was convicted of criminal mischief with damage and sentenced to a year in jail. Additional arrests included felony intimidation, battery, and disorderly conduct, though Breitbart noted that many of those charges were ultimately dismissed.
The distinction between arrests and convictions matters. But for immigration enforcement purposes, the 2020 conviction alone was enough to trigger consequences under a new federal law.
President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act, which requires federal authorities to detain without bond any person in the country illegally who has been convicted of certain crimes. Adongo's 2020 conviction placed him squarely within the law's reach.
After ICE agents arrested him in Chicago in June, a DOJ immigration judge ordered his removal in March. He was held at the Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana before being deported on June 20, the New York Post reported.
Fox News Digital was unable to reach Adongo for comment.
ICE Chicago Assistant Field Office Director Douglas Thompson issued a pointed statement after the removal:
"This dangerous individual was clearly a threat to the community, which is now safer since he's been removed. Those who violate immigration law are held equally accountable, including former professional athletes."
The agency also released a broader statement tying Adongo's case to the administration's enforcement record. ICE said that since the start of the Trump administration, DHS law enforcement has focused on arresting and deporting illegal immigrants with criminal histories, including those convicted of violent crimes.
Nearly 70 percent of ICE arrests involve illegal immigrants who have been charged with or convicted of a crime in the United States, the agency stated. ICE also claimed that more than three million illegal immigrants have left the country under current enforcement efforts.
The agency's message was blunt: "If you come to our country illegally, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you."
Adongo overstayed his visa in 2016. He was convicted of a crime in 2020. He was not removed until June of this year. That timeline, nearly a decade from the initial immigration violation to deportation, raises an obvious question about why the system took so long to act.
ICE did not explain what prevented earlier enforcement. The agency did not detail how Adongo was located or apprehended, and it remains unclear whether he had legal representation or filed any appeals against the removal order. The country to which he was deported was not specified, though Kenya is his country of origin.
What is clear is that Adongo spent years living in the United States illegally, accumulating arrests, serving jail time, and apparently drawing no immigration enforcement action until the current administration prioritized criminal removals.
For the communities where Adongo lived during those years, the question is not whether ICE acted correctly in June. It is why no one acted sooner.
