San Diego Padres Minor League Coach Detained by ICE at Texas Airport
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ICE detains San Diego Padres coach in El Paso airport
Oswaldo Pirela, a 34-year-old minor league catching coordinator for the San Diego Padres, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Sunday morning at El Paso International Airport in Texas.
Pirela was in El Paso on assignment working with the Padres’ Triple-A affiliate, the El Paso Chihuahuas. According to family members, he was apprehended around 4:00 to 5:00 a.m. while preparing to board a flight back home to Phoenix, Arizona, where he resides with his wife and two U.S.-born daughters.
Online records indicate that Pirela is currently being held at the El Paso Processing Center.
El Paso International Airport
A Legal Process Spanning Over a Decade
Pirela, a former professional baseball player from Venezuela, originally arrived in the United States in 2014 to escape political persecution under the Venezuelan regime. According to his family, Pirela followed proper legal procedures upon entry, immediately filing for asylum and consistently renewing his work authorization whenever required.
His cousin, Jorge Pirela, emphasized that Oswaldo has maintained lawful status throughout his twelve years in the country and was actively progressing through the EB-2 employment-based visa process.
“Since the time he applied for asylum, he has continuously renewed his work authorization whenever it was approaching expiration. Everything has always been done through the proper legal process,” Jorge Pirela stated, describing his cousin as a hardworking, devoted father and husband. His sister, Daniela Pirela, added that Oswaldo has consistently complied with all U.S. immigration requirements, noting that his ongoing asylum case has faced prolonged processing delays through no fault of his own.
San Diego Padres minor-league catching coordinator Oswaldo Pirela detained by ICE in Texas
Franchise and MLB Response
The San Diego Padres acknowledged the incident in a brief statement released on Tuesday morning:
“We recently became aware of the detainment of minor league catching coordinator Oswaldo Pirela in El Paso, Texas. We are working to gather additional information and will not have any further comment at this time.”
Neither ICE nor Major League Baseball issued immediate detailed responses regarding the specific grounds for the detention.
Visit Southwest University Park home of the El Paso Chihuahuas | MLB.com
The incident highlights ongoing friction surrounding workplace travel and enforcement tactics at transportation hubs, leaving a professional sports organization down a key player-development staffer while his family fights for his release.
This is the material reality of the current enforcement regime: a coach with pending asylum, continuous work authorization renewals, no criminal history, and U.S.-citizen children gets pulled off a routine work flight home. The machinery does not pause for paperwork delays it itself creates.