The coach and players of a Michigan university’s soccer team recently started an online fundraiser to help defray legal costs of a teammate detained in immigration proceedings.
Members of the women’s soccer team at Cleary University, based in Howell, started the fundraiser to assist Karliana Perdomo, a senior defender on the team. The hope is the money can help pay any bond Perdomo might receive so she can get out of North Lake Processing Center − the state’s largest immigration detention center − as she fights against deportation.
“Karliana is someone who shows up for others, works hard and cares deeply about her education and her future. We set up the GoFundMe campaign to help show our support for her and her family during this incredibly difficult time,” her teammates said, in a statement released by the university.
In a text message to the Detroit Free Press, Liliana Gotopo, Perdomo’s mother, said the family is “very pleased” about the team starting the fundraiser, noting they’ll need it if her daughter receives a bond. [The Free Press used an online tool to translate the text from Spanish to English.]
U.S. Immigration and Enforcement officers detained Perdomo, 20, during a May traffic stop in metro Detroit. Since then, she has remained at North Lake, a Baldwin-based ICE facility. Exact details leading up to Perdomo’s May 26 arrest are unclear; people are typically held at North Lake if federal immigration officials believe they are in the country without legal authorization.
Gotopo previously told the Free Press her daughter fled Venezuela years ago as an unaccompanied minor; she said her daughter was physically attacked by gangs in her home country. Perdomo has lived in the United States since 2022, graduating high school in Detroit before playing soccer at St. Clair County Community College. She joined the Cleary University team in 2025.
Gotopo previously told the Free Press her daughter is a hard worker, is concerned about her academic success and has aspirations to own a business one day.
“She’s an acquisition for any place who gets to have her as an individual. She has so much to offer to any community and society she goes, because she’s an outstanding person,” Gotopo told the Free Press in May, speaking through a friend who helped interpret.
Perdomo is due back in immigration court June 26, where it’s anticipated she’ll ask to be released on bond while her immigration proceedings are ongoing.
Immigration judges in Detroit and elsewhere have historically granted bond less often in recent months, according to publicly available data published by the Trump administration. In the 2025 fiscal year ending in September, most immigrant detainees who requested bond in Detroit Immigration Court and nationally did not receive it, according to public data compiled and published by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
Even in cases where bond is granted, experts previously told the Free Press bond amounts have gone up in recent years. Marie Celentino, director of the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, told the Free Press earlier this year a person who might garner a $3,000 bond a decade ago would instead receive a $10,000 bond now.
The immigration court bond system is also different than criminal court; there is no bail bonds system. Instead, the people involved have to pay the entire bond amount.
The GoFundMe, started Tuesday, June 16, aims to raise $20,000. As of Wednesday, June 17, it had raised more than $3,000. Unused contributions will go toward scholarships in Perdomo’s name, according to the university statement.
“Those who know Karliana talk about her determination, resilience, positive spirit, and strong work ethic – as a soccer player and as a college student at Cleary University. She has been a source of support and encouragement to so many athletes and students around her, and now her teammates, classmates, coaches, and friends are asking for yours,” the text of the GoFundMe states.
The GoFundMe can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-cleary-studentathlete-karliana-perdomo-her-family
Reach Dave Boucher at dboucher@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan soccer team raising money to help member detained by ICE
Reporting by Dave Boucher, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Dave Boucher, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
