The San Diego Padres minor league affiliate team, the El Paso Chihuahuas’ catching coordinator since 2024, Oswaldo José Pirela was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sunday between 4 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. MT. On Monday, his brother, Jorge Pirela, shared a social media post related to the incident, and the rest of the family opened up about the matter on Tuesday.

Oswaldo Pirela was in Texas for a work trip and was trying to return to Peoria, Arizona, to his family, his wife and two children, aged 9 and 4, both US citizens. But ICE took him into custody in El Paso. While his family tried to defend his immigration history, the federal officials stated that the Padres member overstayed his course. That contrast has yet to be resolved, while his wife and two daughters are facing an uncertain situation. 

“A San Diego Padres catching coordinator has been detained and taken into ICE custody, his family and the team told @TheAthletic,” Sam Blum reported via X. “Oswaldo Pirela was taken into custody on Sunday at El Paso International Airport.”

The ICE detainee record showed that Pirela has been in custody since late Monday.

Pirela, 34, is originally from Venezuela and has spent three seasons in the Dominican Summer League as a catcher with the Texas Rangers minor league organization from 2009 to 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile. His sister, Daniela Pirela, says he arrived in the U.S. in 2014 and applied for asylum that same year, a case she says has taken years to process without explanation.

“He did everything lawfully as the U.S. asks,” Daniela told the Associated Press. “He loves this country.” She added to NBC News:

“Since he arrived in this country, the only thing he’s done is follow the rules of this country and do things properly.”

The Pirela family also confirmed that the former player was going through the EB-2 visa process, an employment-based route to permanent residency, as he “continuously renewed his work authorization whenever it was approaching expiration. Everything has always been done through the proper legal process,” his brother Jorge Pirela sent a text message to CNN.

Jorge Pirela also uploaded a statement on Instagram, explaining his brother’s character.

“Oswaldo, like me and other members of our family, was directly affected by persecution from the Venezuelan regime,” he wrote. “We came to the United States seeking safety through the legal process, applied for asylum through the proper channels, and have worked hard to build our lives and become contributing members of American society.”

But the Department of Homeland Security offered a very different account.

According to DHS, Pirela entered the country legally on September 10, 2014, but was only authorized to remain until February 10, 2018, by the Obama Administration. Officials say that when he was approached at the airport, he could not produce current legal documentation.

DHS has stated plainly that a work authorization or a pending asylum application does not, on its own, confer legal status, and that Pirela “overstayed his welcome” and has violated the nation’s laws.

Jorge Pirela did confirm the DHS’s statement to FOX 10 Phoenix that Oswaldo didn’t have his work permit with him when he was traveling. But with that, he also offered an explanation:

“You don’t usually carry that kind of stuff with you. As an immigrant, those are your most valuable papers together with your Social Security. They are things that you usually keep in a safe.”

But Jorge also noted that he had his license and a valid ID, which is impossible to get without proper paperwork.

His family kept reiterating that he has consistently renewed his work authorization and followed the required procedures throughout.

Right now, Oswaldo Pirela is in federal immigration custody. FOX reporter Alex Boyér interviewed an immigration attorney to understand the consequences, who is not involved in this particular case.

“If he does have a final deportation order, he may be relatively limited in terms of what he can do because the courts have already made a determination. Now, he may have the possibility or potential for appeal, especially if he didn’t receive notification of what was going on and probably be with by a board of immigration,” the attorney explained.

Oswaldo built a career in the U.S. well beyond baseball before returning to the sport, working his way up from crew foreman to operations manager, according to his LinkedIn. He joined the Padres organization as catching coordinator for the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas in 2024.

The Padres have confirmed they’re aware of the situation but have declined to elaborate further.

“We recently became aware of the detainment of minor league catching coordinator Oswaldo Pirela in El Paso, Texas,” the team said in a statement. “We are working to gather additional information and will not have any further comment at this time.”

Oswaldo’s wife, Kemberly Avila, assured The Athletic that they have been in constant touch with her husband, and the organization is also helping them in the situation. She even clarified that their entire family has pending asylum applications and they carry temporary ID cards. We have verified the same from a response posted by his brother on the aforementioned Instagram post.

Jorge has clarified that it is “basically a ‘legal alien’ transitional status until the asylum case is reviewed.”

As the attorney had pointed out, the entire matter may even take months to be resolved.

While MLB refused to comment on the matter, MLBPA assured that they keep offering guidance to players and staffers who constantly travel. The association made a statement on Tuesday:

“A significant percentage of the guys who play in the major and minor leagues are born outside the United States. We continue to support them and their families by working closely with immigration experts to make sure they have what they need to remain in the country safely, and to make sure they carry proper documentation while traveling.”

The statement added that the association is available to all players and agents for all the information and support they need, and that they regularly communicate with the league and club security personnel that can affect the player’s travel and security, along with their family.

While the sister, Daniela Pirela, informed NBC News that she has talked to her brother, who said he was OK, she believes that it’s because he never wants his family to worry. Jorge Pirela got emotional during his interview with FOX and exclaimed:

“This is a country that we have all got into love and the country that adopted us,” while asking for an opportunity to have justice.

His mother, Naivy Dominguez, was shocked by the entire matter and asked the community to stand by him, as his family awaits his return.

Calls and messages to ICE’s El Paso office have gone unanswered, according to The Athletic. However, it’s worth noting Pirela’s detention isn’t an isolated moment in baseball’s recent relationship with immigration enforcement.

Immigration enforcement has found its way to the sports orbit before

Back in February, MLB sent a notice to all 30 franchises after noticing an uptick in immigration enforcement, advising teams to instruct foreign-born players to carry their legal documentation at all times. The league never publicly disclosed the full details of that notice.

In July, a 22-year-old college player named Johan Sandoval was separately detained by ICE. Reports indicated the Savannah State University student-athlete’s case stemmed from a bureaucratic paperwork error tied to a SEVIS system school transfer, and his attorney maintained the arrest wasn’t the result of any willful visa violation.

There’s been pushback from inside the sport too.

In July 2025, youth baseball coach Youman Wilder physically positioned himself between immigration agents and his players during a practice at Riverside Park in Manhattan to prevent them from approaching the kids. Even the Los Angeles Dodgers, too, were affected due to this.

They had officially denied entry to federal officers attempting to access their stadium parking lots in June 2025. Protesters flocked to the stadium to chant against ICE’s presence, and the incident raised alarms in Southern California about the Trump administration’s deportation operations.

Baseball has increasingly found itself intersecting with immigration enforcement over the past year and a half, and Pirela’s detention marks one of the most direct instances yet involving an actual team employee rather than a player or bystander. Social media is now swamped with posts against the Pirela incident.

As the Padres continue gathering information and DHS stands by its account, Pirela remains in ICE custody at the El Paso Processing Center, with no timeline yet for when the competing versions of his story might be resolved.