ICE takes 2 teen exchange students into custody outside their Mississippi hosts’ home
By Mina Corpuz, Rick Cleveland, Katherine Lin and Simeon Gates | Originally published by Mississippi Today
KILN – Coach Conner Entriken said he wanted to preach brotherhood to his Hancock County High School basketball players, and he found perfect examples for that message in two teammates from the Republic of Congo.
Exchange students Israel and Max Makoka, who are brothers and have lived with a local host family, brought the team together, he said Wednesday.
Immigration agents took the teenagers into custody April 21 as they waited for the school bus, putting them in zip ties in front of their classmates. Their absence has left the team concerned and confused.
“These kids have never hurt anybody. They’ve never done anything wrong,” Entriken told Mississippi Today. “They just came here to try to make better lives for themselves. They’ve made us a better team. They’ve made us a better school.”
As of Wednesday, Israel was at an ICE facility in Jena, Louisiana, and Max was in government custody in Houston, Texas, according to Entriken. The coach said he visited 18-year-old Israel, who is set to graduate this spring, while he was still in Mississippi and he has heard from 15-year-old Max through text message.
The teenagers’ family can’t come to the United States to check on them because President Donald Trump put the Republic of Congo on a travel ban last July.
A lapse in legal status due to school transfer
The brothers had been in the United States for over two years and had recently lived with a host family, Cliff and Gail Baptiste, in the Gulf Coast community of Diamondhead.
“These are stellar kids. Educated, focused, know what they want to be already,” their host father Cliff Baptiste told the Mississippi Free Press in an article published Monday. “They’re good kids, man, and it’s sad that they have to go through this.”
The Makokas had F-1 student visas and recently transferred from the private Piney Woods School south of Jackson in Rankin County to Hancock High School in Kiln, Entriken said.
Piney Woods is a historically Black boarding school attended by many foreign exchange students. Public schools like Hancock High may not have as much experience with student visas and what is needed for them to maintain legal status.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement Wednesday that the Makokas violated their student visas by failing to attend classes at Piney Woods.
“They were granted the opportunity to participate in a student exchange program. However, they failed to attend that school,” said ICE spokesperson Angelina Vicknair. “Because they violated their visas, they are subject to removal.”
In a statement, Piney Woods School said it complies with federal laws that allow it to teach students from around the world.
A spokesperson for the Hancock County School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘Everyone is feeling this very deeply’
Diamondhead Mayor Anna Liese, a Republican in an area that has supported Trump, said the community is reeling from the Makokas’ detention and absence.
“This is a small town, and people know them,” she said in a Wednesday interview with Mississippi Today.
“It’s not an abstract situation,” she said. “These are real kids with real friends and peers, and their teachers live here. People know them. And by all accounts, they are outstanding students and just stellar members of the school community and everyone is feeling this very deeply.”
A change.org petition is calling for the brothers to be returned home safely to the Gulf Coast. In two days, it garnered over 2,400 signatures and comments from supporters who know the students and their host family.
“These children deserve to study, thrive, and pursue their dreams in an environment that nurtures their potential without fear,” wrote Jessica Jordan, who started the petition.
Entriken, the basketball coach, said he was impressed when meeting the Makokas, calling them stand-up young men with great work ethic on the court and in the classroom.
He wonders how many other students are in a similar immigration situation, with or without support.
U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell, a Republican whose district includes the Gulf Coast, said he is aware of the detention of the brothers and how it has raised “serious concerns in the community.”
“My office is closely monitoring the situation and remains in contact with the appropriate agencies to better understand the circumstances,” Ezell said in a Tuesday statement. “We will continue working to ensure that laws are enforced responsibly while also recognizing the impact these situations have on families and communities.”
In a Wednesday post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith wrote, “My office is doing what it can to work with the guardians of Max and Israel Makoka as they deal with an ongoing and complex immigration case. We will continue to monitor the situation and work toward the best possible solution within the law.”
Hyde-Smith and Ezell are both Trump allies.
Students arrested amid federal immigration crackdown
Trump’s crackdown on immigration has led to large-scale operations across the country, including one based in New Orleans, which included detention activity on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
The brothers are just two of the tens of thousands of immigrants arrested during the second Trump administration. This is a fraught moment for immigration courts.
Last year, the Trump administration instituted a mandatory detention policy, which made more detained immigrants ineligible for a bond hearing. Whether the brothers will be eligible is not known yet.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which handles cases from Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, upheld the administration’s policy in February.
Other students with F-1 visas have lost or nearly lost their ability to remain in the country for different reasons.
Last year, the State Department began terminating F-1 visas for minor infractions, no criminal convictions or alleged campus activism. Some students sued, leading to a wholesale reversal in federal court. While the policy of terminating visas was reversed, the Department of Homeland Security continues to arrest and detain students.
Since the start of the second Trump administration, the agency has revoked 8,000 student visas.
The Makokas brothers are also not the only high school-aged students to be detained.
Last week, immigration agents picked up an 18-year-old high school senior from Afghanistan in Connecticut. Like Israel Makokas, he is set to graduate this year.
The same week, a federal judge in Tennessee ordered the release of an 18-year-old high school student from detention, finding that being detained without bond violated his rights to due process.
Yasser Joe Lopez Soza, of Memphis, was arrested in February while on his way to a school soccer game. He and his family came from Nicaragua in December 2022.
In response to his March habeas corpus petition, DHS argued that Lopez Sopa could be held without bond because he was considered “an ‘applicant for admission’ who is treated, for constitutional purposes, as if stopped at the border.”
Entriken said the brothers’ basketball teammates have noticed they are gone and have asked about them.
“‘Coach, have you heard from them? Coach, are they coming back?’” he said players have asked. “It’s hard. You don’t want to tell them anything that you don’t know 100 percent.”
Mayor Liese said the Diamondhead community just wants the teenagers safely returned.
“It’s just about these kids. I’m proud of the humanity in our community.” she said. “It’s not a political issue here.”
This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Source: Original Article
