A Kentucky State University women’s basketball player was released on bond Wednesday after spending two months in ICE custody.
Aminata Seck, a 26-year-old from Dakar, Senegal, was greeted by family members outside of the Grayson County Detention Center in Leitchfield, Kentucky. An immigration judge set Seck’s $2,500 bond after determining that she is neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk, according to her attorney, Hishem Alsalman.
“I’m just ready to go back to school, get my master’s and get this surgery done,” Seck said at a news conference Wednesday.
Seck said the hardest part of her time in custody was being held in isolation over the final week of her detention.
Seck will soon undergo knee surgery to repair a torn ACL and meniscus. The procedure was postponed during her detention. Seck was arrested on Aug. 7 at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport while attempting to travel to an HBCU all-star game with her basketball coach.
The Department of Homeland Security said a judge ordered Seck’s removal in September 2025 after she missed an immigration hearing. It said that Seck entered the U.S. legally in 2019 on a temporary basis and overstayed “her welcome in violation of our nation’s laws.”
Seck’s immigration case is ongoing, and she is scheduled to appear in court for a hearing on Nov. 20, Alsalman says. Her release comes nearly a week after a Memphis judge ruled that Seck did not receive sufficient notice of the immigration court hearing that she missed in 2025.
“There are other people who are not basketball players, and they will not get this kind of attention,” said attorney Sadiqa Reynolds, who also represents Seck. “We owe ourselves better than this.”
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Seck’s release.
Seck is a graduate student and an all-conference center for Kentucky State in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Kentucky State University has declined to comment on Seck’s immigration case, citing privacy concerns.
