Gainesville teen football player and mother released after two weeks in ICE detention
Sebastian Jimenez Peroza, a 17-year-old Venezuelan senior at Gainesville High School who plays football, soccer and baseball, was detained by ICE agents on Aug. 22 along with his mother, stepfather and sister at their Gainesville apartment complex, days before the school year began. The family had fled Venezuela due to his mother's activism against the government, entering the U.S. legally before applying for asylum once their visa expired. They were separated across facilities, with Jimenez and his mother held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas and his stepfather and sister detained in Florida. Football coach Ashour Peera rallied community support, staying in contact with Jimenez by phone, putting him on speaker before a rivalry game, and later testifying as a character witness at his bond hearing; he described Jimenez as 'a remarkable young man' who 'lights up a room' and called the family 'law-abiding citizens in the community.' Students displayed a Venezuelan flag bearing Jimenez's jersey number, and a GoFundMe raised more than $20,000. After two weeks in detention, Jimenez and his mother, Antmary Peroza Barrios, were released on $5,000 bonds each, along with his stepfather, and planned to return to Gainesville so he could resume school, while his sister's bond hearing was scheduled for Sept. 9 and she remained detained.






















