Daniel Adongo: Kenyan former NFL player deported from US, ICE says

A former NFL player from Kenya was deported last month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency said, citing an overstayed visa, multiple arrests and prison time.

Daniel Adongo, 37, who was a linebacker for the Indianapolis Colts for two years, overstayed his visa in 2016, the year after his NFL career ended, according to the US authorities.

In a statement on Saturday, ICE – which dubbed him a “dangerous individual” – said he was ordered to leave the US on 23 March, and was removed from the country on 20 June.

Adongo, a rugby player at the time, made headlines in 2013 when he switched to American football in the US, having never taken part in the sport before.

“Those who violate immigration law are held equally accountable, including former professional athletes,” ICE Chicago assistant field office director Douglas Thompson said.

“This dangerous individual was clearly a threat to the community, which is now safer since he’s been removed.”

Adongo has made no comment on the allegations against him and it is not clear where he was deported to.

According to the ICE statement, the former sportsman had been arrested “multiple times” over the past 10 years “for crimes including felony intimidation, battery and disorderly conduct”.

His post-NFL life also saw him spend time in a psychiatric hospital, according to US newspaper the Indianapolis Star.

His mother and lawyers have been quoted as saying that he suffered from mental illness and injury, possibly from his time as an athlete.

In 2017 – after being charged with intimidation and criminal mischief – the newspaper said a judge ordered a psychiatric examination of Adongo to determine if he was capable of standing trial; he was ruled incompetent and was sent to a psychiatric hospital.

The trial was rescheduled multiple times including for not passing another psychiatric examination.

Then in 2020, he was convicted of “criminal mischief with damage”, and sentenced to 364 days in prison, ICE said.

The agency added that his most recent charges fell under the US’s Laken Riley Act, which requires undocumented immigrants, who are arrested for theft or violent crimes, to be held in prison pending trial.

US President Donald Trump signed the bill into law on 29 January, 2025, shortly after starting his second term.

The bill was named after Laken Riley – a Georgian nursing student who was murdered by a Venezuelan man a year earlier.

More than 40 Kenyans have been arrested by ICE, according to the US Department of Homeland Security website.