A soccer tournament in California is helping immigrants heal after ICE detention

ImmigrationA soccer tournament in California is helping immigrants heal after ICE detentionAfter hearing from detainees about the power of playing soccer, a legal aid group convened an annual tournament where former detainees and advocates have found community.Listen to this article with a free profile00:0000:00Players from The Strikers team play during the 2026 CCIJJust Goals tournament. Brooke Anderson / CCIJShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJuly 18, 2026, 6:00 AM EDTBy Albinson LinaresThe first time Pedro Ayón and Serafín Andrade played soccer together was when they were both in ICE detention at a center in McFarland, California, a few years ago.Subscribe to read this story ad-freeGet unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Ayón, born in Mexico and raised in the U.S., spent eight months in detention in 2021. Since no visits were allowed due to the pandemic, his only option to see people was to go out to the yard to kick a ball around with his fellow inmates.“When we were allowed recreation for an hour, half an hour, we often went out and that was a way to feel free, to enjoy ourselves, to be able to share and in any way forget about the situation we were in,” he said. “It’s a ball, right? But it does things you wouldn’t think of — being able to heal people just by kicking the ball around.”Amid the confinement and the sadness of being away from his family, soccer allowed Ayón to forge great friendships like the one with Andrade, who spent a year and a half in immigration detention at the same center, McFarland’s Central Valley Annex.Serafín Andrade and Pedro Ayón at the CCIJust Goals tournament at the University of San Francisco in June.Pedro AyónThe power of play to heal the trauma of detention led a group of people to create a soccer tournament in California that brings together worlds that rarely intersect on a field: former ICE detainees, family members of those still incarcerated, immigration lawyers, activists and community organizers. The teams...