Teenage Brothers Seized by ICE While Waiting for Bus Released After Outcry
Two teenage brothers from Congo, legally studying in Mississippi, were ripped from their school bus stop and held in separate ICE detention centers for nine days over a visa technicality. Their arrest sparked community outrage, political pressure, and a petition with thousands of signatures demanding their release.
Israel Makoka, 18, and Max Makoka, 15, were legally living in Mississippi on F-1 student visas when immigration authorities swooped in on April 21. The brothers were waiting for their school bus in Diamondhead when ten unmarked ICE vehicles surrounded them. They were zip-tied, separated, and hauled off to detention centers hundreds of miles apart—Israel to Louisiana and Max to Texas—with no clear timeline for release.
The official reason? ICE claims the brothers violated their visas by transferring schools—from Piney Woods School, a historically Black boarding school with a foreign exchange program, to Hancock High School in Klin, Mississippi. But their legal guardians, Gail and Cliff Baptise, say neither they nor the new school received any notice from immigration before the arrests.
“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 Baptise told WLOX News. “Now that’s a broken system right there. They didn’t follow their own protocol.”
The community rallied quickly. Hancock High students held a ceremony honoring the brothers, and a Change.org petition demanding their release gathered over 3,000 signatures. Even Republican Senators Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker intervened, with Hyde-Smith’s office connecting the family to pro bono legal help.
Lawyer Amy Maldonado confirmed the brothers will reapply for their F-1 visas and reimburse the school district for their public education costs. Their guardians plan to accompany them to their immigration hearings in Louisiana.
This incident highlights the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown on “foreign student visa abuse,” which led to the revocation of 8,000 student visas in just one year. The Makoka brothers’ case exposes the human cost of a system that prioritizes enforcement over fairness, tearing families apart without warning or due process.
We’ll keep tracking these stories — because when ICE targets kids waiting for a bus, it’s time to demand accountability.
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