A pair of teenage brothers from the Republic of Congo living in Mississippi have been released from ICE custody after their arrest startled a community.
Israel Makoka, 18, and Max Makoka,15, were held in ICE custody for nine days, one brother sent to Louisiana while the other was taken to Texas.
The two came to Mississippi legally on F-1 student visas, Israel in 2024, and Max in 2023. They initially attended the historically Black boarding institution, Piney Woods School, but decided to transfer to Hancock High School in Klin, Mississippi.
On April 21, immigration authorities arrested Israel and Max in Diamondhead as they were waiting to take the school bus. According to WLOX News, 10 unmarked cars surrounded the area, detaining and zip-tying the brothers. Eventually, they were separated and hauled off to detention centers in different states, not knowing how long they would be in custody for.
According to ICE, the brothers violated their visas when they transferred to a different school. They “failed” to attend Piney Woods, which has a foreign exchange program that allowed them to receive student visas. However, their legal guardians, Gail Baptise and Cliff Baptise, explained to WLOX News that they were not notified about the issue by immigration, and neither was Hancock High.
“We should have got a notice. A phone call. The school should have got a notice. A phone call. They went straight to arrest,” Cliff Baptiste told the outlet. “Now that’s a broken system right there. They didn’t follow their own protocol.”
After the arrest, members of the local community took action. Fellow Hancock students honored Israel and Max in a ceremony, a change.org petition demanding the brothers’ release from custody gained over 3,000 signatures, and Mississippi politicians got involved. Republican Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker pushed for their release, Gail telling the Associated Press that Hyde-Smith’s office connected her to pro-bono legal services.
Amy Maldonado, the lawyer for Israel and Max, said the brothers will reapply for their F-1 visas and pay the school district the cost of their public education, per the New York Times. Gail and Cliff, their legal guardians, will also take them to Louisiana for their eventual immigration hearings.
This story is just the latest as the Trump administration continues its mass deportations, last year announcing that the Department of Homeland Security would begin cracking down on “foreign student visa abuse.” In January, the agency boasted that it had revoked 8,000 student visas.
