Homero Calderón, a professional soccer player from Venezuela with an extensive career across multiple countries, has been held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Georgia for approximately five months. The detention began following a traffic stop in Florida in late February when he was arrested for driving without a valid state license, though his family contends he possessed a valid international driving permit. He was subsequently transferred to ICE custody, where he remains despite having two active immigration applications pending.
Calderón is the father of two U.S. citizen children, ages 1 and 3, and his detention has created significant strain on his family. He had applied for an extension of his tourist visa and separately filed for an EB-1A visa designation, which is designed for individuals with extraordinary ability in fields such as athletics, science, and business. Despite these pending legal proceedings, federal authorities maintained that his authorization to remain in the country had expired in 2025.
Immigration legal advocates point to Calderón’s case as representative of a systemic problem within the immigration system. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency currently faces a backlog of approximately 11.3 million pending cases, with the backlog growing by more than 1.6 million cases since 2025. During the same period, case processing declined by roughly 41 percent at the beginning of the 2025 fiscal year, creating extended delays for applicants attempting to navigate legal pathways.
Expert observers note that policy changes have shifted enforcement priorities. Previously, individuals with active immigration applications or pending court cases were typically deprioritized for detention, allowing them to continue their legal proceedings. Current enforcement practices, however, have broadened to include all immigrants regardless of their immigration case status. This approach has drawn criticism from immigration policy analysts who characterize it as inefficient, as approved applicants could ultimately remain in the country legally. Calderón’s family reports he has no criminal history in the United States or elsewhere and has consistently complied with immigration regulations throughout his life.
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