When Ricardo Navarrete is running with a soccer ball at his feet, the world melts away.
But for more than two months, the Mather High School senior didn’t have that escape.
Since March, he’s been stuck in cramped detention facilities with barely enough room for pushups after federal immigration officials took him and his mother, Liliana Navarrete, into custody during a routine hearing for their asylum case.
There’s a lot Ricardo missed. Weeks of his club soccer season. Senior prom. And until this week, it looked like he wouldn’t get to walk across Mather’s graduation stage.
Ricardo was released on Tuesday after a community of supporters brought national attention to the family’s plight and lawyers fought for them in court. His mother was freed last week.
And on Wednesday, Ricardo was finally back to being a high schooler, competing in his first soccer game since his detention. Though his team lost and Ricardo was tough on his own performance, the 18-year-old was elated to be back on the ball, a day out from getting his diploma.
“I feel so many feelings,” Ricardo said. “I’m so happy to be here. I just want to be with my family and play soccer.”
But the family’s ordeal took a toll on the Mather community, which, like many Chicago schools, is still coping with the aftermath of this fall’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign. And Ricardo isn’t the only Mather student who was directly affected by the Trump administration’s efforts to deport record numbers of immigrants.
Eriq Vazquez, a music teacher and the head of Mather’s sanctuary committee, which supports immigrant families, said that days after Ricardo’s mother was released, he learned of another student’s deportation order. Once the school year is over, the student and his family are leaving the country.
“We can’t do too much, but we just want to keep relaying that they have community here and support,” he said. “We’re doing everything that we possibly can.”
Ricardo and Liliana arrived in Chicago as asylum-seekers in 2022 from Bogota, Colombia. They had an active asylum application when they were detained, according to their lawyers. It’s not clear why they were taken into custody. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said they were apprehended “for illegally entering the United States.”
The mother and son were held in different detention facilities. Ricardo described tough conditions in those places, such as sleeping on the floor without a blanket and being packed in a room with dozens of other men, some of whom had committed serious crimes.
Ricardo was still in detention when a judge released Liliana earlier this month. Liliana said that was “mortifying” and she had trouble eating or sleeping without her son by her side.
“It was very painful,” Liliana said. “We had never been apart like that.”
They were reunited this week in Crown Point, Indiana, where they held each other tightly in a long embrace. They hadn’t been able to speak with each other while they were both detained and talked sparingly by phone after Liliana was released.
“God bless you always, always,” Liliana told her son as she wrapped her arms around him for the first time in weeks.
After the emotional meeting, the family went to dinner with Ricardo’s club soccer coach. Ricardo spent hours on the phone catching up with friends, making the calls he couldn’t from detention. He got a haircut.
Steven Navarrete, Ricardo’s older brother, said he was happy when he woke up to see Ricardo asleep on the couch after two long months.
“He’s back where he was supposed to be,” Steven said.
Steven and Liliana watched as Ricardo laced up his Saprix soccer shoes on Wednesday — a Colombian brand showcasing a little piece of home. He was gearing up to play futsal, a variation of soccer with smaller teams and fields.
The crowd cheering behind the chain-link fence around the playing field nearly exploded as Ricardo dribbled past defenders and unleashed a powerful strike. But the ball crashed against the goalpost.
Still, those are some of the skills Ricardo hopes to show off next year at Truman College, the community college soccer powerhouse.
Mateo Abrego, one of Ricardo’s closest friends, was there to support him. Earlier that day, Mateo had picked up Ricardo’s graduation cap and gown. Those weeks without his friend, he felt “sad, depressed and lonely,” he said.
Mateo’s first glimpse of Ricardo after his release came as a surprise. He was in class when a classmate passed him a cellphone. There, on FaceTime, was his friend.
“All I say is ‘Wow, that’s Ricardo!” Mateo said. He yelled so loudly, he nearly got in trouble with his teacher.
Seeing Ricardo again has been a relief for his friends and the Mather staff, but Trump’s ongoing mass deportation campaign still weighs heavily on teachers’ minds. As summer break approaches, Vazquez said he worries whether some students will have enough to eat and if immigration officers will have a more visible presence as more people are out enjoying the warmer weather.
Sometimes the crises students are confronting can be all-consuming.
“I need to take some time to unplug,” Vazquez said. “But what happens if I don’t check my email for a week? Will something catastrophic happen? And, like, I could have done something? It is incredibly stressful.”
Kristy Morrow, a friend of Ricardo and Liliana’s family who helped raise funds to cover their legal expenses, said now that they are home she’ll try to raise awareness for others in similar situations. She believes the publicity and community efforts helped the family, noting that U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who has long advocated for reforms to the nation’s immigration system, spoke about Ricardo’s case on the Senate floor last week.
“We know how many people are sitting in ICE detention and I think the attention that we got” was instrumental in securing their release, Morrow said. “Without it I don’t think we would have stood a chance.”
The family’s ordeal isn’t over. They’ll continue to pursue their asylum case in court. Ricardo has to check in daily with ICE through a GPS tracker on his wrist. After his experience, Ricardo said he doesn’t mind it too much.
“Between being there, locked up, and being here, I prefer this,” Ricardo said.
For now, he’s happy to be making up for lost time.
After his game, Ricardo sat with his family and Mateo on a bench, basking under the brilliant afternoon Chicago sun.
Sarah Karp contributed reporting.