Former Syracuse College basketball participant John Bol Ajak has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers.
“It was simply overwhelmingly unhappy after I heard he obtained taken,” former Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim informed Syracuse.com on Thursday, March 5. “They’re taking good individuals out of our nation.”
Ajak, 26, performed for Syracuse from 2020 to 2023 — when Boeheim coached — and was with the workforce throughout its 2021 Candy 16 run within the March Insanity match, though he solely performed in a single sport.
The previous collegiate athlete was arrested in Syracuse, New York, the place he lives, and was taken to the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility, the place he was transferred to ICE’s Moshannon Valley Processing Heart in Pennsylvania, in line with Syracuse.com.
Initially born in South Sudan, Ajak and his household fled their residence nation when he was a baby and lived in a refugee camp in Kenya. At 14, he got here to america on a basketball scholarship and ultimately landed a spot on the roster at Syracuse.
After graduating and over the previous few months, Ajak was arrested 4 occasions for alleged disorderly conduct and trespassing. He was launched from jail after his most up-to-date arrest — on February 18 — however missed a scheduled courtroom look 5 days later.
John Bol Ajak in 2021
Andy Lyons/Getty PhotographsPrevious to his ICE detainment, Ajak was homeless and sofa browsing whereas making an attempt to get again into grad college after his pupil visa expired.
He accomplished his undergraduate diploma in 2023 however didn’t end his graduate programs.
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In line with Ajak’s LinkedIn account, he began a non-profit group, The HumBolFund, to assist children in want by offering them with varied alternatives and schooling.
“There are a variety of children on the streets not as a result of they selected to however as a result of they don’t have the funds to attend college,” Ajak wrote on his LinkedIn. “I began this basis to place a light-weight on their state of affairs and help them with the funds to go to high school.”
Additionally on his LinkedIn web page, he revealed a need to work with the United Nations “to assist create alternatives for the subsequent era of children in Africa.”
“I’m so grateful for the chance I obtained to come back to america to chase my desires at a younger age,” he wrote. “The easiest way to indicate my appreciation for my alternative is to create extra alternatives for others, particularly in my neighborhood in Africa. My ardour is to provide again to the much less lucky and that’s why I began TheHumBolFund.”