For head coach Rich Freeman, Morehouse College’s 2014 football season wasn’t getting off to a great start.
Just a few days before the season officially started and classes began, he learned he had lost his starting kicker.
Desperate for a replacement, the athletic director convinced the coach to take a look at a kid in Conford, North Carolina. The 5-foot-11-inch placekicker, Alex Maganda, made an immediate impression on the coaching staff.
“He was a nice young man, vibrant, energetic, very mannerable,” Freeman told Capital B Atlanta from his home in Douglasville.
But Maganda, who had come to the U.S. from Mexico at age 5, had never heard of Morehouse College.
Freeman knew he had to move fast if he was going to get Alex to commit.
With only 24 hours until enrollment ended and fall classes began, Freeman threw a Hail Mary pass: He offered Maganda a full scholarship to the prestigious all-male college in Atlanta.
Within hours of speaking with the school’s charismatic coach, the newest Maroon Tiger was packing his bags to head to Georgia.
Maganda would go on to embrace his new HBCU home and lead the football team in scoring his freshman year.
And according to Freeman, Maganda also made good on the scholarship he received by also distinguishing himself in the classroom.
Freeman, who led the Morehouse program from 2007 to 2022 and now serves as the head football coach at Cedar Grove High School in Ellenwood, remembers a young man who built camaraderie in the Tigers’ locker room and even broke through his own gruff exterior.
“He is one of those types that can fit into any room,” Freeman, 51, recalls fondly. “His energy and spirit, very funny guy. He was the locker room favorite — and he even made me loosen up.”
After graduating in 2018, Maganda worked as a teaching assistant at Morehouse, giving Spanish lessons to high school students. Later he moved to Dallas and reportedly began working as a general contractor.
Last week, he was detained by Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents after a traffic violation.
“Everybody is shocked,” Freeman said.
Detained after a traffic stop
Alex has lived in the United States for 25 years. He is currently being held at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas, 200 miles from Dallas. When Capital B Atlanta reached out to the facility last week, they confirmed his detainment.
Bluebonnet is listed as a prison under contract for ICE and is operated by the Management and Training Corp.
According to the Texas Tribune, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a series of executive orders in January ordering agencies to cooperate with the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, and directed the state’s criminal justice agency to identify facilities for their ongoing detainment and deportation efforts.
Read More: After Morehouse Alum Detained by ICE, HBCU Community Sounds Alarm
Maganda’s attorney Carrie Nguyen said he came to the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which was constructed to shield participants from deportation. Maganda’s status reportedly expired recently and wasn’t renewed.
“This man has been here since 2000. It’s 2025, and he’s 30 years old and has this huge community,” his girlfriend, Maszoliin Spencer, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He doesn’t know anyone [in Mexico]. He’s from there, but he doesn’t know anything. This country shaped him.”
HBCU alums sound the alarm
Spelman College grad and social media influencer Lynae Vanee posted an impassioned plea on Instagram on June 10 to her more than 800,000 followers. She encouraged the Spelhouse community, the moniker used for those who attended Spelman and Morehouse colleges, to help their former classmate.
“I am reaching out with an urgent plea for assistance regarding our brother, friend, and classmate, Alex Maganda, a member of the Class of 2018, who has recently been detained by ICE. This situation has arisen amidst the ongoing protests surrounding immigration policies and the current administration’s stance on deportation.”
The hashtag that began circulating with her post was urgent: #FreeAlexMaganda.
In the days since the news of Maganda’s detainment began to spread on social media, the HBCU community has been rallying support for their former classmate.
Freeman says Maganda’s former teammates are also exploring ways to help.
“We are in a mobilization phase right now,” Freeman said. “Right now, there are some intense conversations.”
Two petitions on Change.org are calling for Alex’s immediate release on bond:
“We’re calling on ICE, the El Paso immigration court, and the Department of Homeland Security to grant Alex Maganda release on bond while his case is heard. And we’re calling on the public — especially in Georgia and Texas — to show that we don’t abandon our neighbors, our alumni, or our values.
Sign this petition to demand Alex’s release and to send a clear message: We don’t deport our classmates and community members over paperwork lapses.”
Wednesday, ICE reportedly directed attorneys to no longer allow bond hearings for those in the U.S. illegally, which would force them to remain in detention while fighting deportation.
According to The Washington Post, a memo from acting ICE Director Todd Lyons outlined that migrants should be detained “for the duration of their removal proceedings,” a process that can take months or years.
As for Freeman, he believes his former player is the type of person that will benefit America.
“Everything that Alex has been a part of, everywhere he’s been, he’s added value to whatever he’s been a part of. The presence he brings, the character he brings and the intellect that he possesses, that’s the type of guy that you want around. That’s the type of guy that deserves an opportunity.”
Staff writer Madeline Thigpen contributed to this report.
Follow Capital B Atlanta for updates on this developing story.
