Former SU men’s basketball player reportedly detained by ICE
John Bol Ajak (left), who played for Syracuse men’s basketball from 2019 to 2023, was detained by ICE, syracuse.com reported Thursday. Ajak fled South Sudan’s civil war when he was young, eventually making his way to the U.S. and committing to SU. Emily Steinberger | Daily Orange File Photo
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John Bol Ajak, a former Syracuse University basketball forward, has been detained by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, syracuse.com reported Thursday.
Ajak was first taken to the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia. He is currently being held at ICE’s Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania.
Syracuse.com reported that Ajak was charged with trespassing at the Newhouse School of Public Communications on Jan. 31 and Feb. 18. The Daily Orange reported on a former student who was removed after breaking a no trespass order on Jan. 30 and Feb. 17.
SU communications did not respond to a request for comment that Ajak was the trespasser.
Ajak has been arrested four times total on-campus since December, according to syracuse.com.
- Dec. 17: Charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, arrested by police near the JMA Wireless Dome
- Jan. 30: Charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, arrested at Newhouse
- Jan. 31: Charged with third-degree criminal trespass, arrested at Newhouse
- Feb. 18: Charged with two counts of third-degree criminal trespass, arrested at Newhouse
Following the Feb. 18 arrest, Ajak was released on pretrial supervision but did not show for a scheduled court appearance Feb. 23, leading to his arrest and referral to ICE, syracuse.com reported.
Ajak played forward position for the Orange from 2019 to 2023, earning his undergraduate degree from College of Visual and Performing Arts in December 2022. In April 2021, while studying at VPA, Ajak created The Humbol Fund, designed to provide scholarships to kids in Sudan.
“I want to help kids through school. Me being at Syracuse University, was for school. No one brought me here. I didn’t get drafted; I came to the United States because of school,” Ajak said in an SU release.
Ajak also served as a United Nations Project Coordinator at the Maxwell School of Public Affairs and Citizenship.
Although his student visa has since expired, he sought to re-enroll in graduate courses, syracuse.com reported.
Ajak was born in Natinga, South Sudan in 1999. His family fled the country’s civil war when he was young, eventually settling in a Kenyan refugee camp.
He arrived in the United States at 14, eventually finding a host family in Pennsylvania. He committed to the Orange in the fall of 2018.
“It was just overwhelmingly sad when I heard he got taken,” former SU head coach Jim Boeheim told syracuse.com. “They’re taking good people out of our country.”
