Daniel Adongo came to the United States in 2013 with nothing but ambition and raw talent. He left behind an established career as one of Africa's top rugby players to become the first Kenyan to ever play in the NFL — signing with the Indianapolis Colts without having played a single game of American football in his life. He didn't know how to strap on a helmet when he arrived. But he figured it out. He played in five games across three seasons.

He told a cheering crowd in downtown Indianapolis, "I love Indy. I love the people of Indy. I want to become a Hoosier," according to IndyStar. Becoming an American — building a life here — was his goal.

Today, Adongo, 36, is sitting in a prison cell at Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana — a facility the Trump administration nicknamed the "Speedway Slammer" — held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He has been there for months. His only conviction on record is a Class A misdemeanor from six years ago. The charges that led to his most recent arrest were dismissed entirely.

What Adongo does have is a serious mental illness. He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Doctors and social workers who worked with him believe he may also be living with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE — an untreatable brain disease caused by repeated head impacts, common among athletes who played contact sports. Symptoms can include memory loss, depression, and aggressive behavior, and they often don't appear until years after the injuries occurred.

Henry Mudari, a mental health social worker with the St. Joseph County Police Department who interacted with Adongo over three years, wrote to prosecutors in June 2025: "I do believe punitive measures will only cause more harm to him." He added that Adongo needed treatment in an in-patient facility.

Those words went unheeded. Adongo was jailed anyway, then transferred to ICE custody, then sent to Speedway Slammer — a facility that has been plagued by killings, drug use, and gang activity, and that recently agreed to pay more than $1.2 million to settle allegations that prison officials kept inmates in dark cells for months. ICE has not confirmed whether Adongo is receiving any mental health treatment there at all.

This is not justice. This is a man who chased the American dream — who answered citizenship test questions correctly on live television, who gave up an elite athletic career in Africa to play for this country — now sitting in one of Indiana's most dangerous prisons because he needed a doctor, not a cell.

We are calling on ICE to release Daniel Adongo immediately and connect him with the in-patient mental health treatment that professionals who know him say he urgently needs. Sign to demand his release and proper care.