After overextending his visa and being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), former Syracuse basketball player John Bol Ajak is headed back home to Sudan after spending more than a month in custody.
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According to Syracuse.com, the 26-year-old, who was still living in the New York town, agreed to a voluntary departure when given a choice between that option and a deportation order. Representing himself in court during a virtual hearing, Ajak said, “If this is how I’m leaving, I never want to step foot in this country again.”
Ajak appeared before Immigration Judge Adam G. Panopoulos of the Elizabeth Immigration Court in New Jersey on April 2. Although the judge said he was sympathetic, he stated that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had proven that the basketball player had overstayed his visa.
Born in Sudan, Ajak arrived in the country in 2014 after leaving Kenya to pursue an education and seek basketball opportunities in Pennsylvania. He came to the United States when he was 14 and was homeless until he found a host family. After graduating from Church Farm School in Exton, he attended Syracuse, where he played basketball for three seasons.
“I came to Syracuse because I wanted to stay rooted and grounded in the African community,” Ajak said during the hearing.
He acknowledged that his F-1 student visa had expired in 2023 after he graduated from Syracuse, but said he wanted to enroll in a master’s program at the university’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.
However, police records show he was also arrested several times in the past couple of months, according Syracuse.com. On Dec. 17, 2025, he was arrested near the JMA Dome (where the Syracuse football team plays its home games) and charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. More than a month later, he was arrested on Jan. 30 at the Newhouse School and charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. The next day, he was arrested again at the same location; this time, he was charged with third-degree criminal trespassing.
His last arrest happened on Feb. 18 at the Newhouse School, where he was charged with two counts of third-degree criminal trespass. Ajak was taken into ICE custody the same day after being released from jail.
The former Syracuse center is currently at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, after initially being held at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia. No timetable has been given for Ajak’s deportation.
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