When Ricardo Hernandez-Navarrete arrived in Chicago with his family after escaping domestic violence in Colombia, the then-15-year-old walked to a soccer facility he found on Facebook five miles away.
Hernandez-Navarrete arrived “frozen” — traversing across the city on that cold January day not just because of his love of soccer but because he recognized an opportunity to meet people who could teach him about living and succeeding in the United States, Costel Serban, his coach at iProSkills Academy, told Raw Story.
“It's incredibly brave of this kid to do this sacrifice, to walk for so long on such a cold day because he was the hope for his family,” Serban said.
Within 24 hours of meeting Hernandez-Navarrete, the soccer club rallied to gather clothes and pay for food and a motel for a month for him, his mother and his brother while they searched for an apartment and sought asylum in the United States, Serban said.
Now, three years later, Hernandez-Navarrete’s community is rallying around the family again after he and his mother, Martha Liliana Navarrete-Capazan, were detained on March 16 at a check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Chicago.
Kristy Morrow, a community organizer, teacher and parent whose son played soccer with Hernandez-Navarrete, called the request from ICE “bogus" and coordinated a GoFundMe that raised more than $36,000 to help the family with hiring lawyers and paying for living expenses while detained.
Kelli Fennell, one of the family's lawyers, confirmed they had a pending asylum application accepted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), received within one year of the family's arrival in the U.S.
The family faces fear of harm or persecution in Colombia, and neither the mother nor son has a criminal record, Fennell said.
"They were told their parole was being canceled but weren't told why," Fennell said.
In response to questions from Raw Story, a spokesperson for ICE said:
"An illegal alien may have a final order of removal but can remain in ICE custody while a travel document is obtained for their lawful removal to their home country.”
Hernandez-Navarrete, now an 18-year-old high school senior, told Raw Story via a phone interview from the Kenton County Detention Center in Kentucky that his mom received an email from ICE requesting their appearance last month. They both showed up with their paperwork — and were unexpectedly detained.
Fennell said the mother and son were asked "if they wanted to leave voluntarily. They said no, because they haven't seen the judge. They advised them that they had an asylum application pending and were afraid of returning their home country."
Under the second Trump administration, some immigration lawyers said they’re seeing clients get called in for more ICE check-ins — with more people detained at them with “very little rhyme or reason to it,” said Nicole Whitaker, an immigration lawyer from Towson, Maryland.
Whitaker, who is not representing the family, recalled a client at a recent check-in shaking and experiencing a panic attack “because nobody knows what's going to happen” at an ICE check-in these days.
Fennell said she's heard of detentions at ICE check-ins "happening more often during this administration, anecdotally," which has led to "very real fear" and "a lot of anxiety."
“It's so awful,” Morrow said. “[Ricardo's] here to be here and to work and to get educated, and it's the kind of person we want here, him and his family. It's unbelievable.”
Hernandez-Navarrete has been transported to eight different detention facilities since March 16, Morrow said. He was separated from his mother and at times their locations have been unknown to their lawyers and advocates.
“I never be alone too much time,” Hernandez-Navarrete said on Tuesday. “I never be separate too much time with my mom.”
After being detained in Chicago and sent to the Broadview ICE facility outside of the city, Hernandez-Navarrete was sent to Kansas, then to Oklahoma and back to Kansas. He was then sent to facilities in Indiana, Louisiana and Ohio — back to Indiana — and he is now in Kentucky, Morrow and Serban said.
The constant movement of the mother and son has become “legally significant,” with Hernandez-Navarrete moved four times just since Thursday, Morrow said.
“It is preventing anything from happening for these people,” she said.
Each transfer to a new state requires finding a new lawyer licensed to practice there.
“When they move me it’s like a new start,” Hernandez-Navarrete said.
Hernandez-Navarrete said he saw his mom briefly when they were two of three detainees on a plane from Louisiana to Ohio. He expressed concern about being unable to use airplane safety equipment like life jackets if there was an emergency.
Other times, Hernandez-Navarrete said he was transported to facilities alone by van.
“It's quite shocking, actually, what they did to him, considering he's a 18-year-old kid,” Serban said.
While in various detention centers, Hernandez-Navarrete said he’s been searched naked, slept on the floor without blankets and at times has been unable to use the restroom due to too many people in one room.
When he called Raw Story on Tuesday, Hernandez-Navarrete said he was in a room with 42 people.
“I have to be strong, but it's hard,” he said on Monday evening.
“I'm hungry.”
While in Louisiana, Hernandez-Navarrete and Navarrete-Capazan were told they were being deported and taken to the airport, only to then be told the planes were full or going to the wrong place, Morrow and Fennell said.
“This is happening continuously as I guess some sort of a scare tactic to be like, ‘I can't endure this anymore,’” Morrow said.
After that, Hernandez-Navarrete said he spent two days in solitary confinement and was not given a reason. He said he could not take a shower for those two days while in solitary confinement.
“Too much alone [time], and it's going to be more crazy for me,” he said.
Hernandez-Navarrete said a teacher is working to make sure he still gets his high school diploma, and he has plans to attend Harry S. Truman College, a community college in Chicago.
"He's not my first client to be put in solitary confinement while in detention, and I'm certain he won't be the last. It's happened before without reason," Fennell said.
"The fact that an 18 year old was separated from his mother — he is two months away from graduating high school and was committed to play soccer at a junior college — and then to have an innocent kid who's never been arrested or had any contact with law enforcement be taken without notice, stripped from his community, bounced around to a bunch of different detention centers ... being forced to live in these conditions is just appalling."
A spokesperson for ICE said regular inspections of facilities are conducted to ensure compliance with "federal detention standards for safety, sanitation and humane treatment ... in fact, ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens."
When White House "border czar" Tom Homan made a similar statement last summer, scholars called the statement misleading, noting that ICE facilities face less consistent oversight, PolitiFact reported.
The ICE spokesperson added, "ICE facilities are bound by the National Detention Standards and Family Residential Standards — rigorous, federally enforced guidelines that prioritize safety, medical care and detainee rights. These standards are not optional — they are mandatory and strictly monitored.
"ICE has maintained its high-quality care, including medical, mental and dental care for illegal aliens. This is the best healthcare many aliens have received in their entire lives."
The spokesperson said ICE has a "longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody," which includes medical, dental and mental health services and 24-hour emergency care.
Hernandez-Navarrete said he holds out hope that “God can help us, with me and my mom, to release.”
“With the people that is in charge, they see us like we are criminals or something like that, and we are not,” he said.
While coordinating communication with the attorneys and family members, Morrow said she's learned “this system is so incredibly rigged, and it is next to impossible to figure out what to do," especially for someone without access to funds or being a native English speaker.
“It's infuriating how slow all of this moves for people that are literally being treated so inhumanely,” she said.
The community response to supporting the family has been "everything," Morrow said, and Hernandez-Navarrete's peers at Mather High School have been spreading the word to get people to show up in support at a soccer practice on Thursday where Telemundo is expected to film a segment.
“Everything legally says that they should be released the minute they're somewhere long enough that we can file, but I also know the reality that there's thousands of Ricardos and Lilianas sitting in detention who have the exact same paperwork in place, who have the exact same story and have done literally nothing wrong and are documented," she said.
“That's when I get so nervous because I know reality and what is happening under this administration.”
Serban said Hernandez-Navarrete was determined to stay in the United States to continue fighting for asylum.
“I saw the grit and the desire to do well, and the desire to help his family. I believe the United States system is going to understand that and is going to release him, is going to let him continue his dream,” Serban said.
“I'm just hopeful, because knowing the kid, if somebody deserves to stay in this country, this is the kid.”