PORTLAND — Joel Andre hunched his shoulders against the chilly wind as he walked across Kennedy Park on Friday afternoon to play soccer with his friends.

As he neared the fence around the futsal court, his face split into a smile when a friend walked up and looped his arms across Joel’s shoulders, pulling him into a quick hug.

“You’re back home, bro,” the friend said. “You’re back strong.”

Joel’s return to Portland and the pickup street soccer game was months in the making — and one that was never a sure thing.

Joel, a Deering High School student, spent the last four months in federal detention with his mother, Carine Balenda Mbizi, and 14-year-old sister Estefania Andre after they were arrested in November when they sought asylum in Canada.

Joel, his mother and younger sister were released from custody at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas this week after the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a motion to allow the family to stay in the country.

Mbizi’s adult daughter, Olivia Mabiala Andre, 19, remains in custody, according to attorneys who represent the family.

The family, originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived at the Portland Transportation Center on Thursday, where supporters held signs welcoming them home and folded them into joyful hugs.

“I’m very happy to be back,” Joel said Friday afternoon. “Yesterday, I was not believing I’m back. I don’t know how to describe how I am feeling.”

Joel, who turned 17 while in custody, has been a regular at games organized by Kennedy Park Pickup Soccer since 2024. His absence was felt immediately when he stopped showing up to play last November, said Anthony Fiori, who organizes the games with Matheus Santana.

“They literally got the nicest kid around,” Santana said of the federal agents who took Joel into custody. “It’s such a real joy to have him here. He plays fun and free. He doesn’t know how to not be happy.”

After the family’s arrest, more than 500 students from across the city marched from Monument Square to City Hall to protest their detention. The pickup soccer group helped raise money for the family’s legal expenses and publicly called for his release.

“Joel is a part of our family, an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us, we must do everything in our power to fight for Joel,” the group posted on Instagram soon after finding out about the arrest.

When Santana and Fiori were able to get Joel on FaceTime calls, he would talk a little about the conditions at the facility, Santana said. He told them about whole families who were being held together and the ones who were alone after being ripped away from their loved ones. He described the rashes they’d get on their skin from the water in the showers.

“He seemed so miserable and so defeated,” Fiori said. “It was really painful to watch.”

After months of worry — about Joel, his family and others from the soccer community they feared would be targeted by immigration enforcement agents — Santana and Fiori are happy to finally focus on something happy.

“It is nice to have a win in all of this, to have something to celebrate,” said Fiori, who was at the bus station Thursday to welcome Joel home.

At the futsal court on Friday, everyone who arrived seemed to gravitate to Joel, greeting him with hugs and laughter. Joel never stopped smiling.

After four months without soccer — the longest he can remember going without playing — Joel was happy to finally play again. He was designated a captain for the afternoon and the first player he chose was Fiori, who Joel said gave him motivation to be strong when he was in Texas.

Joel said he doesn’t “have enough words” to convey how grateful he is for the support from his community. He also had a hard time describing what it felt like to finally be back at Kennedy Park soccer.

This is where he learned to speak English, where he made friends, where he found a community of his own.

“This place is very special for me because I connect with many people,” Joel said during a break from the game. “It doesn’t matter where you come from. When you come here, we’re playing together.”

With music blaring from a portable speaker mixing with the thwack of the soccer ball and laughter from players, Joel jumped back into the game without hesitation. When his teammate sent the ball spinning into the goal, Joel raised his arms in celebration, a bright grin lighting up his face.

This is what he’d been waiting for.