Former Colts linebacker Daniel Adongo deported by ICE after visa overstay

ICE said it deported former Indianapolis Colts linebacker Daniel Ogama Adongo last month after a Justice Department immigration judge ordered his removal in March. The 37-year-old Kenyan national, once a rugby convert who had never played American football before joining the NFL, became the face of a visa-overstay case that only surfaced publicly after the deportation was already complete.

Adongo was removed from the United States on June 20, according to the removal order issued March 23. ICE said its Chicago office handled the case after Adongo overstayed a visa following the end of his NFL career in 2015, with the overstay dated to 2016. The agency also cited a 2020 criminal mischief conviction and earlier arrests for felony intimidation, battery and disorderly conduct.

ICE Chicago Assistant Field Office Director Douglas Thompson said Adongo was "a dangerous individual" and added that "the community is now safer since he was removed." ICE also said the case qualified under the Laken Riley Act, which has become part of the wider immigration enforcement framework for noncitizens with certain criminal histories.

The deportation drew extra attention because of who Adongo had once been in football circles. The Colts signed him on July 25, 2013, and then-general manager Ryan Grigson described him as "an exceptional competitor and human being" with the right makeup for the sport. Indianapolis later promoted him to its active roster in December 2013, a brief but notable rise for a player whose path to the NFL began in Kenya and came with little traditional American football experience.

That background made Adongo more visible than the typical immigration case. His name had lingered in NFL memory because of the novelty of his arrival in Indianapolis, and the enforcement action against him connected immigration law, criminal-history screening and a rare high-profile athlete profile in a single case.