Sept. 23, 2026, 11:12 p.m. ET
- A school basketball participant from Senegal was arrested by ICE for overstaying her pupil visa.
- The Division of Homeland Safety acknowledged she’s going to stay in custody pending elimination proceedings.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) says {that a} ladies’s faculty basketball participant arrested in Kentucky by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will stay in custody pending elimination proceedings.
Aminata Seck, a 26-year-old from Senegal who performs for Kentucky State College, was arrested by ICE on Aug. 7 on the Louisville Muhammad Ali Worldwide Airport earlier than she was set to journey together with her group to New York.
In an announcement offered to USA TODAY Sports activities on Wednesday, Sept. 23, DHS mentioned that Seck legally entered the nation on Sept. 1, 2019, via Los Angeles, on a brief foundation.
“She selected to overstay her welcome in violation of our nation’s legal guidelines,” DHS mentioned. “To be clear: a pending software or work authorization doesn’t confer authorized standing in the USA.”
DHS mentioned that an immigration choose issued a remaining order of elimination for Seck on Sept. 8, 2025, after she “failed to point out up for her immigration listening to.”
“She’s going to stay in ICE custody pending elimination proceedings,” DHS mentioned of Seck.
Detained faculty basketball participant moved a number of occasions
Sadiqa Reynolds, a lawyer serving to with Seck’s case, advised USA TODAY Sports activities earlier this week that “nobody” – buddies, household, teammates or coaches – has seen Seck since she was first detained. Reynolds has solely spoken to Seck “a half-dozen occasions” by telephone.
Reynolds mentioned that Seck was detained as a result of her pupil visa expired. Throughout President Donald Trump’s second time period in workplace, the U.S. State Division says it has revoked greater than 175,000 visas, together with greater than 8,000 pupil visas.
“It is a paperwork scenario. She has not damaged any legal guidelines, she hasn’t completed something fallacious. She’s not a legal,” Reynolds mentioned of Seck. “She’s a pupil, she was enjoying basketball. She’s out right here making an attempt to make it as greatest she will. I don’t assume folks actually perceive how troublesome the immigration course of is. It’s not straightforward. I feel we perhaps take it without any consideration.”
In line with Reynolds, Seck was coping with an ACL harm and carrying a brace on her leg earlier than she was taken into ICE custody, and had problem having access to primary medical care akin to ice for her knee. When Reynolds went to go to Seck on the Grayson County Detention Heart in Leitchfield, Kentucky, on Monday, Sept. 21, she was advised by officers on the detention middle that Seck was transferred to a medical facility.
DHS appeared to substantiate that in its assertion, saying Seck was “referred to the native hospital, the place she is receiving remedy for knee ache” on Monday. DHS didn’t reply to a query asking particularly the place Seck is being handled.
“It’s a longstanding apply to offer complete medical care from the second an alien enters ICE custody,” DHS mentioned. “This consists of medical, dental, and psychological well being providers as accessible, and entry to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. Unlawful aliens even have entry to telephones to speak with their members of the family and legal professionals. That is the perfect healthcare that many aliens have acquired of their lives.”
ICE has a web based detainee locator system, however Seck’s identify was nonetheless not listed within the database on Wednesday. The Related Press reported this week that ICE has stopped publicly revealing the place it’s holding hundreds of detainees who’re topic to remaining deportation orders, and eliminated these detainees from its on-line system on Sept. 15.
Seck remains to be listed on the web inmate listing for the Grayson County Detention Heart with a mugshot as of Wednesday night time. The offense description together with her itemizing reads: “US DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY / ICE.” The entry notes no bond and that she was transferred to the power on Sept. 18.
Reynolds mentioned Seck has been moved at the very least 4 occasions and has hung out being detained in Kentucky’s Clay, Clark and Grayson counties, and has additionally been held at a facility in Chicago. DHS didn’t reply to a query particularly asking why Seck had been moved so many occasions within the 48 days she has been in ICE custody.
In an announcement offered to USA TODAY Sports activities on Wednesday morning, Rep. Morgan McGarvey – a Democrat representing Kentucky’s third Congressional District – mentioned his workplace is monitoring Seck’s scenario.
“Aminata is a student-athlete who was arrested by ICE on the airport whereas touring together with her teammates,” McGarvey mentioned. “The Trump Administration’s cruelty is aware of no bounds, however we’ll by no means let this develop into regular and we gained’t cease preventing for her.”
The NCAA has not responded to a request for remark.
A spokesperson for Kentucky State advised USA TODAY Sports activities earlier this week, “out of respect for the privateness of these concerned, Kentucky State College doesn’t have data to share.”
DHS: ‘Being in detention is a selection’
Seck, who’s listed as a senior on Kentucky State’s roster, began 20 of 26 video games for the Thorobreds final season and was named third-team All-SIAC after averaging 11.7 factors, 7.3 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per sport. She scored a season-high 30 factors in opposition to Lane School on Jan. 14 and grabbed a season-best 16 rebounds in opposition to Clark-Atlanta College on Feb. 23.
Moreover, Seck was named a recipient of the SIAC’s Elite 16 award, the convention’s highest tutorial achievement honor for student-athletes who exhibit exemplary efficiency in athletics and the classroom.
Kentucky State, positioned in Frankfort, Kentucky, is a traditionally Black faculty which performs its sports activities on the Division II degree of the NCAA.
In 2025, 264 worldwide gamers competed in March Insanity for males’s and girls’s basketball, amounting to about 15% of all gamers, in response to the NCAA. Since 2010, the variety of worldwide gamers in males’s and girls’s faculty basketball has elevated by 175%.
ICE arrests in Kentucky have elevated by almost 70% this yr, in response to a information evaluation by the Louisville Courier-Journal, a part of the USA TODAY Community.
DHS ended its assertion by saying, “Being in detention is a selection.”
“America is providing unlawful aliens $3,000 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage each individual right here illegally to make the most of this supply and reserve the possibility to come back again to the U.S. the fitting authorized technique to dwell the American dream,” DHS mentioned. “If not, you can be arrested and deported with no likelihood to return.”
