‘Free Leo’: Family, advocates mark 8 months since Bay Area man’s ICE detention

Monday marked eight months since the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Leo Oliveira Xavier, 33, during what was supposed to be a routine immigration check-in at the agency’s field office in San Francisco.

According to a GoFundMe campaign started by Xavier’s sponsor, Colin Andrew Logan, the 33-year-old came to the U.S. from Brazil in December 2024, seeking asylum. A year later, he reported to the ICE’s San Francisco office on Sansome Street for a scheduled immigration appointment, but federal agents detained him.

The GoFundMe campaign has since covered his legal representation and is now seeking an additional $20,000 for his bond.

Supporters on Monday morning went to the same ICE field office for a protest organized by the “Free Leo, Free Them All” campaign. A coalition brought together Xavier’s family and friends alongside several Bay Area organizations: Alameda County United in Defense of Immigrant Rights, an immigrant rights coalition; Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, a worker-led organizing group; Community Movement Builders’ Oakland Organizing Committee, a Black community organizing group; the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, a faith-based immigrant justice organization; Bay Resistance, a grassroots advocacy network; and SambaFunk!, the Bay Area samba ensemble Xavier performs with.

A roughly hour-long program alternated between speeches and music. Family members, faith leaders and organizers spoke about Xavier’s detention, shared updates on his legal case and called for his release, while also urging supporters to continue advocating for others who remain in immigration detention.

Elena Pradhan, Leo Oliveira Xavier’s partner

Among the speakers was Xavier’s partner of nearly two years, Elena Pradhan. She met Xavier through SambaFunk, where he played drums and she danced. Speaking to the crowd, Pradhan described him as someone who naturally drew people together and remembered the afternoons they spent at home in the Bay Area, where he would play while she danced, smiling.

“As of today, I have missed eight months of my time together with Leandro,” Pradhan said. “That is 240 days, and I do not want to miss another moment.”

She also spoke about “Sou Eu,” a Portuguese call-and-response song they used to sing together at home. It was one of the things she said she has returned to most since Xavier was detained.

More speakers followed, returning to Xavier’s case while connecting it to broader concerns about immigration detention.

At one point during the program, the Rev. Deborah Lee, co-executive director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, urged supporters to continue organizing.

“Keep fighting, the lawyers are fighting, the communities are fighting, the families are fighting, so keep fighting, and we’re going to bring all of our people home,” Lee said. “Free Leo.”

Periodically, the speeches paused and the SambaFunk drummers stepped forward. The musicians said they were the same group that accompanied Xavier to his last immigration check-in. They waited outside the building expecting him to return before learning from his attorney that he had been detained.

Throughout the morning, one exchange became part of the backdrop.

“Free Leo,” a speaker would call.

“Free them all,” the crowd answered.

The chant carried across the sidewalk to the line of people waiting for their own immigration appointments just a few feet away. Some turned toward the speakers. Others kept their eyes on the entrance while holding their paperwork, waiting to walk through the same doors Xavier entered eight months earlier, expecting to walk back out.

Between songs, the drummers stood quietly beside their instruments until another speaker stepped forward. Then they picked them up again. Their music filled the block with the same sound that had once followed Xavier into rehearsals, neighborhood gatherings and afternoons with friends.

After the final speaker finished, the drummers gathered one last time, and Pradhan stepped into the middle of them.

As the drummers started to play, Pradhan closed her eyes and began to dance, smiling as she did. For a few minutes, it became easier for her to picture Xavier where the people who loved him most remembered him best — at home.