Twin Gwinnett high school grads and soccer players arrested by ICE
Medals, plaques, and championship trophies adorn the Bethlehem home of Venezuelan immigrants Carlos Enrique Orta and Reyna Santoro de Orta.
“This is the house of two elite soccer players,” Carlos Enrique Orta said.
The award-winning athletes, though, are absent.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding the Venezuelan couple’s twin children, 19-year-old brothers Luis and Carlos Orta Santoro, in a Louisiana detention facility, agency records show.
The brothers entered federal immigration custody following a Nov. 4 traffic stop on the way to their college campus in Alabama — one day after heavy electoral losses for the Republican Party, which prompted misgivings from President Trump about the political cost of “too tough” immigration enforcement.
Luis and Carlos, like their parents, are asylum seekers. The family applied for asylum protections after legally entering the country on a tourist visa. Although that visa has expired, the brothers have been granted U.S. work permits and Georgia driver’s licenses, which The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reviewed. A final decision on their asylum case remains pending.
Santoro de Orta said her children have not committed any crimes.
In the past, asylum applicants without criminal records were not prioritized for arrest and deportation while their cases wound their way through the immigration court system. That has changed under Trump, who in the past has described the asylum system as a de facto “loophole” that can give unauthorized immigrants safe haven in the U.S. during the years-long waiting periods needed to review their claims.
In a statement, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said that Luis and Carlos “legally entered the U.S. with permission to stay on a temporary basis, but then illegally overstayed in defiance of our laws. All their claims will be heard by an immigration judge, and they will receive due process.”
“To be clear, pending applications do NOT confer legal status,” the statement continued.
Luis and Carlos now face removal to Venezuela, a country they left as minors.
“It’s been hell,” Santoro de Orta said, adding that she supports ICE “taking away the criminals” but said her children do not fit that description.
Earlier this spring, Luis and Carlos graduated from Lawrenceville’s Archer High School, having powered its varsity soccer team to its first region title in school history.
In 2026, Archer named Carlos offensive player of the year, and Luis midfield player of the year. The brothers competed nationally in club soccer and began attending Wallace State Community College in Alabama this fall, on soccer scholarships.
Then, on Nov. 4 while returning to campus after visiting their parents in Georgia, Luis and Carlos were arrested by a local Lincoln Police Department deputy during a traffic stop in east-central Alabama.
According to Santoro de Orta, police said the brothers’ vehicle hadn’t come to a complete halt at a stop sign. Lincoln Police Department chief Michael Gore did not respond to a request for comment.
The department signed a partnership agreement with ICE in July, federal records show. Luis and Carlos were booked in Talladega County jail, where they were later picked up by federal immigration agents. The sole charge listed in their booking records was “hold for ICE.”
Mixed signals on enforcement
A day before the brothers’ traffic stop, U.S. voters lodged widespread repudiation of Trump’s agenda. Immigration enforcement was one of the top issues on voters’ minds, according to exit polling, and an important factor in Republicans’ crumbling support among the Latino electorate.
In a “60 Minutes” interview that aired on Nov. 8, Trump said his mass deportation campaign “hurt me.”
“I think it might be too tough,” he said.
Trump added that he believes securing the border and removing immigrants with criminal backgrounds is popular among voters.
“But I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that — that created one violation or breaking of the law: that was that they came into the country illegally,” he said.
In a social media post reflecting on the election results, Vice President JD Vance said the reason Republicans lost was the war with Iran. But he also wrote about being “open to the idea that we should change (immigration) enforcement — by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance.”
Despite those statements, a turnabout in ICE operations may not be forthcoming.
Days after the election, Trump elevated Stephen Miller, the architect of the administration’s immigration crackdown, to the role of chief of staff. By then, Secretary of Homeland Security had posted on X that “deportations will continue.”
Because of significant budget increases approved over the last two years, ICE will remain well-funded enough to continue pursuing a mass deportation policy through the remainder of Trump’s term.
For Orta and Santoro de Orta, worry over their children is compounded by a feeling of guilt.
“If anyone is at fault, it’s me. It’s us,” Orta said. “Because I insist and I will continue to insist that Carlos and Luis came here because of a decision we made. Carlos and Luis stayed here because of a decision from mom and dad. Carlos and Luis are here because of us.”