The parents of twin college soccer players described their shock after the brothers were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while returning to their Alabama campus.
Wallace State Community College athletes Luis and Carlos Orta Santoro, both 19, were taken into ICE custody after a traffic stop on November 4 as they traveled back to campus, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Venezuelan twins had been visiting their parents, Carlos Enrique Orta and Reyna Santoro de Orta, in Georgia. They were arrested by a Lincoln Police Department officer during the traffic stop in east-central Alabama.
The brothers previously attended Archer High School in Lawrenceville, where they helped the varsity soccer team secure the school’s first-ever region championship.
‘This is the house of two elite soccer players,’ their father, Carlos Enrique Orta, told the outlet.
Luis and Carlos are seeking asylum after entering the United States legally on tourist visas, as their parents did.
Their visas later expired, but the twins were granted work permits and Georgia driver’s licenses, the outlet reported.
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson, whose agency oversees ICE, told Our News Outlet on Saturday that the brothers had entered the country legally on June 21, 2022, with temporary permission to remain. The spokesperson said they later ‘illegally overstayed in defiance of our laws.’
Twin brothers and soccer players Luis and Carlos Orta Santoro, both 19, were taken into ICE custody on November 5 after being arrested the previous day
Luis and Carlos helped Archer High School in Lawrenceville, Georgia, win a region soccer title
The brothers were arrested while returning from a visit to their parents, Carlos Enrique Orta and Reyna Santoro de Orta (both left)
The DHS spokesperson told Our News Outlet: ‘All their claims will be heard by an immigration judge, and they will receive due process. This administration will not ignore the rule of law.’
‘To be clear, pending applications do NOT confer legal status,’ the statement added.
During their final year of high school, Carlos was named offensive player of the year, while Luis received the award for midfield player of the year.
The brothers began attending Wallace State this fall on soccer scholarships. They now face the possibility of deportation to Venezuela.
‘It’s been hell,’ their mother, Santoro de Orta, told the outlet.
She said she supported ICE removing ‘the criminals,’ but insisted that her sons did not belong in that category.
The twins’ asylum case remains unresolved, and they are still being held in custody.
Their mother said police told the family that the car had failed to make a complete stop at a stop sign.
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A Lincoln Police Department officer arrested the brothers as they returned to Wallace State Community College, where they hold soccer scholarships
The family sought asylum after entering the country legally on tourist visas. DHS said the brothers had ‘illegally overstayed in defiance of our laws’
The Lincoln Police Department entered into a partnership agreement with ICE in July.
According to the Cullman Tribune, ICE said the arrangement permits specially trained local officers to use limited immigration authority during routine police duties under federal supervision.
Luis and Carlos were booked into the Talladega County Jail on November 4 before being transferred to ICE custody the next day.
Their father, Orta, said the family had been struggling with feelings of guilt as they discussed what had happened to the brothers.
‘If anyone is at fault, it’s me. It’s us,’ Orta told the outlet. ‘Because I insist and I will continue to insist that Carlos and Luis came here because of a decision we made.’
He continued: ‘Carlos and Luis stayed here because of a decision from mom and dad. Carlos and Luis are here because of us.’
The Santoro twins were moved to the Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in southern Louisiana after their arrest, WABE reported.
The brothers were transferred to the Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in southern Louisiana
The Lincoln Police Department signed a partnership agreement with ICE in July, and one of its officers arrested the brothers
Nicolas Azcarate Florez, a friend of the twins, said he had spoken with them several times since their arrest.
‘They’ve been saying that they’ve been moved five times, so it has been difficult for them,’ Azcarate Florez told the outlet.
He described the brothers as players ‘that you could just give the ball to, and you would know that they would do something good with it.’
‘If we needed them, we would know that they would be there to help us out of a sticky situation,’ he added.
The arrests came during the same week that Republicans faced a historic blue wave in the midterm elections, widely viewed as a rejection of the GOP’s immigration policies.
After the elections, one of President Donald Trump’s first moves was appointing Stephen Miller as White House chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles.
Miller, one of Trump’s most loyal and longest-serving advisers dating back to his first administration, is known for his hard-line position on immigration.
Critics have described Miller as the architect of several of Trump’s most divisive policies, including the separation of migrant families during deportations in the president’s first term.
