On August 7, Aminata Seck was scheduled to take a flight to New York along with her basketball teammates from Kentucky State College. As a substitute, federal immigration brokers took her into custody at Louisville’s Muhammad Ali Worldwide Airport. Greater than seven weeks later, the 26-year-old student-athlete from Dakar, Senegal, is combating an immigration case whereas her legal professionals fear about her well being.
Seck, referred to as Amina on the Thorobred checklist, is greater than a reputation in a detention file. The 6-foot-4 middle led the Kentucky State girls’s basketball crew with 11.7 factors and seven.3 rebounds per recreation throughout the 2025-26 season. She earned third-team All-SIAC honors and the convention’s Elite 16 award, its highest educational recognition for a student-athlete. She was on her method to a basketball occasion in New York along with her crew when she was arrested, based on lawyer Sadiqa Reynolds.
The Division of Homeland Safety says Seck entered america legally in September 2019, however remained there after her licensed interval of keep expired. The company says an immigration decide ordered her deportation on September 8, 2025, after she failed to seem for a listening to. Reynolds mentioned Seck could have missed a deadline associated to her pupil visa whereas she was recovering from again surgical procedure.
Her authorized crew disputes the suggestion that she knowingly ignored an immigration listening to. Legal professional Hishem Alsalman advised Entrance Workplace Sports activities that Seck claims he by no means obtained a listening to discover or deportation order. He mentioned his legal professionals filed a movement with the immigration court docket on Aug. 18 to reopen the case. This dispute remains to be not resolved; a missed listening to and a lawyer’s account of a lacking discover are each central to what occurs subsequent.
Seck’s present bodily situation has added some urgency to the state of affairs. Reynolds says the athlete is affected by an ACL harm and skilled important ache whereas in custody. In response to Alsalman, she was transferred between 4 detention facilities, had seizures and was hospitalized. DHS says Seck was carrying a leg brace when he was arrested and was transferred to the hospital for knee ache on September 21. The company maintains that these detained have entry to medical care. Accounts differ as as to whether Seck obtained ample care earlier than this hospital go to.
On September 24, Seck filed a federal petition difficult his detention and requesting emergency reduction. A decide set deadlines for the federal government to reply; the general public file reveals a response filed September 28 and a deadline for Seck’s response September 30. The submitting is only one step in his case, not a call ordering his launch. DHS mentioned she is going to stay in ICE custody whereas deportation proceedings proceed.
Kentucky state officers declined to debate the case, citing privateness issues. Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky mentioned his workplace was monitoring the state of affairs. Because the authorized battle unfolds, the query is now not simply how an achieved student-athlete ended up in custody throughout a crew journey day. It is about whether or not she will be able to get the care she wants and a good probability to problem the order that put her there.