Kentucky State basketball player Aminata Seck will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings, DHS says. The department says a judge issued a final removal order Sept. 8, 2025, after she missed a hearing. Her lawyer says Seck was detained because her student visa expired.
ICE arrested Seck Aug. 7 at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport before she was due to travel with her team to New York. DHS says she entered the U.S. temporarily on Sept. 1, 2019, and overstayed. On Sept. 21, DHS said she had been referred to a local hospital for knee pain but did not identify the hospital.
Her lawyer, Sadiqa Reynolds, says Seck had an ACL injury, struggled to obtain basic care such as ice, and had been moved at least four times among facilities in Kentucky and Chicago. Reynolds says she has spoken with Seck about six times by phone; no friends, family, teammates or coaches have seen her since her detention. ICE's locator did not list Seck on Sept. 23, though Grayson County's inmate list did. The Associated Press reported that ICE had removed thousands of detainees subject to final deportation orders from its locator on Sept. 15.
