ICE Detains a Chicago Public Schools Senior and His Mother: ‘We Had Done Everything by the Rules’

Ricardo Navarrete, an 18-year-old senior at Mather High School who had been recruited to play college soccer at Truman College, and his mother, Liliana, were detained by ICE in March during a scheduled check-in for their active asylum case. The family fled Colombia in 2022 and has no criminal record. The two were held in separate facilities in Kentucky, and their attorneys argued the detention was unlawful. A federal judge ordered Liliana’s release on habeas after she was held without a timely bond hearing, and on May 26, 2026, Ricardo was released as well — after missing the final weeks of his senior year — following his mother’s public plea, ‘Please free my son.’