Family's fury as 'elite' athlete twin brothers are arrested by ICE while on their way to college in Alabama
Wallace State Community College soccer players Luis and Carlos Orta Santoro, 19, were taken into ICE custody after a traffic stop on November 4 while on their way to campus. The Venezuelan twins were returning from visiting their parents, Carlos Enrique Orta and Reyna Santoro de Orta, in Georgia when they were arrested by a Lincoln Police Department officer during a traffic stop in east-central Alabama.
The brothers graduated from Lawrenceville's Archer High School after a successful varsity soccer career that included a first ever region title for the school. Carlos was named the offensive player of the year and Luis the midfield player of the year by their high school this year. They had received soccer scholarships to attend Wallace State, which they began doing this fall, but now face deportation to Venezuela.
Luis and Carlos are asylum seekers who applied for protections after legally entering the US on a tourist visa, like their parents. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that the brothers had legally entered the US with permission to stay on a temporary basis on June 21, 2022. The DHS spokesperson added: "All their claims will be heard by an immigration judge, and they will receive due process."
'It's been hell,' Santoro de Orta, their mother, said, adding that she supported ICE 'taking away the criminals' but said her children did not fit that description. Their father, Orta, described how the family was grappling with guilt, stating: 'If anyone is at fault, it's me. It's us. Because I insist and I will continue to insist that Carlos and Luis came here because of a decision we made.'
Luis and Carlos were booked into the Talladega County Jail on November 4 and transferred to ICE custody the following day, and have since been taken to the Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in southern Louisiana. A final decision on the brothers' asylum case is still pending as they remain in custody.