Former Indianapolis Colts Player Deported After a Decade of Criminal Arrests

From the NFL to Deportation: The Fall of Daniel Adongo

Daniel Adongo moved to the United States in 2013 after signing with the Indianapolis Colts, despite having no previous experience playing organized American football. The Nairobi-born athlete had played professional rugby in South Africa and New Zealand before switching sports — and his signing made him the first Kenyan to ever play in the NFL. It was a remarkable story of athletic ambition crossing continents. But the chapter that followed his football career is a far darker one.

He appeared in five games over two seasons, mainly as a linebacker and special-teams player, before Indianapolis released him in December 2015. According to ICE, it was after that brief sporting career ended that his immigration status and then his criminal record began to unravel. ICE says Adongo overstayed his visa in 2016 and remained in the country illegally.

A Criminal Record That Spanned Nearly a Decade

Adongo was arrested multiple times by Indiana law enforcement over the past nine years for crimes including felony intimidation, battery, and disorderly conduct. He was convicted of criminal mischief with damage in 2020 and sentenced to 364 days in jail. Many of the charges were later dismissed in court, but the pattern of run-ins with law enforcement continued to mount.

His most recent criminal charges fall under the Laken Riley Act, a federal statute that requires the detention, without bond, of illegal aliens for certain crimes. The bill was introduced following the murder of Laken Riley by an illegal immigrant who had previously been cited for shoplifting on the University of Georgia campus. President Trump signed the bill into law on January 29, 2025. Adongo's case became one of the more high-profile examples of the law being applied since its enactment.

ICE Acts — and Sends a Message

A Department of Justice immigration judge ordered Adongo removed on March 23, 2026. Before being returned to Kenya, he was held at Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, Indiana. Once the removal order was issued, ICE Chicago put him on a flight to Kenya less than three months later.

ICE Chicago Assistant Field Office Director Douglas Thompson said in a statement, "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 message from federal authorities was unmistakable: celebrity or athletic status offers no shield from immigration enforcement.

A Broader Enforcement Push

In June, ICE's arrest and deportation effort reportedly reached a new high, with more than 43,000 people arrested and booked into detention that month and a total of more than 65,000 in custody nationwide. ICE has maintained that 70 percent of those arrested are illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in addition to violating federal immigration law.

Adongo's case stands out not because of the scale of his crimes relative to others being deported, but because of who he once was. A man who made history as the first Kenyan in the NFL — recruited out of a rugby career and thrust into the American sports spotlight — ultimately became a case study in what happens when opportunity unravels and immigration law is ignored. As the Trump administration continues its aggressive enforcement posture, cases like Adongo's signal that no profile, however notable, is too small or too large to escape scrutiny.