WEST CHESTER TWP., Ohio — A few weeks ago, Emerson Colindres played soccer in one of his teammates' backyards. The cicadas weren’t as loud then. And neither were the calls to to get him out of jail.
“We used to play against each other," said Braylen Niese-Williams, one of his teammates. "We were rivals at first."
He shows me his shirt.
“Free Emerson,” it says.
There’s a stack of them on a chair inside.
“It’s been an emotional roller coaster,” Niese-Williams said.
Hear Colindres speak from jail in the video below:
Colindres’ family moved to this country in 2014, when he was 8 years old, seeking asylum after claims of gang activity against them in Honduras. In 2023, that asylum case was denied. And on Wednesday, the family went for what they thought would be a regular check-in with immigration officials.
Colindres has been in jail ever since.
"He didn’t do anything wrong," said Joshua Williams, another teammate. "And they just took him away."
Williams knows. Because he was there.
“I was the last person who saw him,” Williams told me. “I got to hug him goodbye.”
Williams and his friends called Colindres Emi, one of the best soccer players they’d ever seen. More than that, he was the kind of kid other parents pointed to as a role model — not someone who belongs in jail.
“I wish I hugged him longer,” Williams said. “Because I didn’t know that would be the last time I was going to see him.”
On Sunday, the team gathered to make signs for a protest outside the jail. They made dozens of them, and they kicked the soccer ball around. Then, the phone rang.
“Emerson, can you hear me?”
It was Colindres, calling from jail. His friends passed around the phone, asking how he’s doing and trying to lift his spirits after he answered.
“They got Pacers scores in there?” one said.
“You should start lifting weights,” another laughed.
Colindres talked to them for almost 20 minutes. And then he spoke to me.
“I was just ... living life, minding my own business,” Colindres said. “And now I’m here.”
He told me he appreciates the support, but that doesn't make what he's going through easier.
“It’s just awful," Colindres said. "We only go out once a day — sometimes twice. (It's) not a life someone who didn’t do anything should be living."
Outside the jail a few hours later, Colindres’ mom addressed a large crowd. Through a translator, she said her son is not doing well.
“Please, Mr. Trump — because I’m talking directly to you — have pity on us,” she said. “Have compassion.”
When she finished, the crowd started chanting: “Free Emerson.” Behind her stood her son’s soccer team.
