An immigration judge rejected a third bid to free Homero Calderón on Aug. 18, keeping the Venezuelan professional soccer player in custody for a seventh straight month. The judge found no meaningful change in circumstances since two earlier denials, and the government's own attorney argued against releasing him, according to an account by Univision's N+. For Calderón's mother, Carolina Gazui, the hardest part isn't the detention itself but not knowing how long it will last. "What worries Homero most is time," she told Univision.
A Traffic Stop That Ended in Federal Custody
Calderón's ordeal traces back to Feb. 27, when he left his home in Marion County, Florida, to run a household errand. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told CNN en Español that Ocala police stopped him for speeding, after which the Marion County Sheriff's Office booked him on an invalid-license charge and handed him over to ICE. But DHS gave NPR a different version, crediting the Sheriff's Office alone with both the stop and the arrest. The LatinTimes could not independently confirm which account is accurate. Calderón's wife, Daniela Molina, says he was holding a currently valid international permit to drive at the time, not an expired Florida license.
From there, officers drove him to Orlando, where ICE took custody and later moved him to a processing facility in Folkston, Georgia, about 115 miles north near the state line. Molina told CNN en Español that days passed with no word from her husband. When he finally reached her, she recalled him breaking down on the phone: "My love, help me. Get me out of here."
Two Immigration Cases, Still Unresolved
DHS has told both NPR that Calderón overstayed the terms of his tourist visa, which the agency says expired Sept. 5, 2025. His family disputes that framing. Records show he filed an I-539 request to extend his stay on Aug. 25, 2025 — weeks ahead of that deadline — according to NPR. Separately, the family pursued an EB-1A petition, a visa category reserved for people of extraordinary ability that can lead to a green card.
Here the record gets murkier. Gazui told Univision's N+ team that USCIS didn't receive the EB-1A filing until Feb. 27, 2026 — the same day her son was taken into ICE custody. CNN en Español's account, by contrast, describes the petition as part of the same push the family made in 2025 to beat the visa deadline, which would put it well before his arrest.
Molina told CNN en Español the family built the EB-1A case around Calderón's athletic résumé: a career of more than 15 years across five countries — Venezuela, Cyprus, Portugal, Italy and the United States — and at least 11 clubs. Alongside that, the family submitted pediatric and surgical records tied to one of the couple's two children, whose medical needs were part of why the family delayed returning to Venezuela in the first place.
Neither pending case kept Calderón out of ICE custody, and his situation reflects a much larger trend, said Shev Dalal-Dheini, who directs government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, in comments to NPR. She said USCIS's mounting backlog routinely snares immigrants who filed their paperwork correctly and on time. Nationwide, the agency's pending caseload has swelled to roughly 11.3 million cases, up more than 1.6 million since 2025, based on figures the American Immigration Council compiled. Dalal-Dheini argues the slowdown isn't incidental: "It's an easy way for the government to meet their quota," she told NPR.
Adriel Orozco, a senior policy counsel with that same council — a separate organization from AILA — echoed that assessment to NPR, saying that the slower USCIS moves on applications, the more exposed immigrants become to enforcement even while doing everything by the book.
A CNN en Español review of public records found no criminal history for Calderón in the U.S. beyond a 2019 Florida speeding citation that was dismissed.
Missed Birthdays and Three Denied Bonds
The detention has already cost the family milestones it can't get back. Calderón's daughter turned 1 in late March; his older child, a son, has asked his mother why his father cries during their calls, Molina. Three bond requests have now failed: the first on March 17, when a judge told the family to return once the EB-1A petition was approved, according to Noticias Telemundo; a second on May 21; and the third on Aug. 18. That approval still hasn't come and a judge has left open the possibility of reconsidering bond only once the underlying I-140 petition — the same EB-1A filing — is resolved.
The family has also filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the legality of Calderón's continued detention, which remains pending.
Part of a Wider Pattern
Calderón isn't the only Latino professional athlete swept up in this summer's enforcement wave. ICE also detained Argentine midfielder Matías Pourrain at Fort Lauderdale International Airport and separately held Venezuelan asylum-seeker and footballer Claudia Rodríguez Caglianone for more than two weeks before her release on bond, according to El Diario NY.
Two open questions now shape what happens to Calderón, per Univision's N+ reporting: whether USCIS approves the EB-1A petition, which could reopen the door to bond, and how a judge rules on the pending habeas corpus filing. Neither has a set timeline. DHS has said only that Calderón must stay confined while his case works through immigration court. His mother says the family isn't asking for special treatment because of his soccer career — only for USCIS to issue a decision, whatever it turns out to be, so the family finally knows what comes next.
