Mississippi Valley State basketball player Qingfang Pang has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), raising questions about immigration enforcement and college athletics.
Qingfang Pang, a 6-9 junior forward from China, is being held by ICE at the Richwood Correctional Center in Richwood, Louisiana. His attorney, Marcus Session, told Jackson, Mississippi’s WJTV News that Pang was arrested on September 29 and that he “didn’t know his visa was expired.”
“He doesn’t know what to do. And the school was going to send him home, or he was without a place to stay, things like that. Right?” Session said. “So, he’s going to try to get back to New York to be with his original sponsor, friend of the family, who’s taking care of him, who’s helped guide him along the way, who’s been with him his entire time here. And in the process of doing that, flying to New York or attempting to fly to New York, he was detained by ICE.”
Before his detention, Pang had been a student at Mississippi Valley State for about a year. He had previously played junior college basketball at Monroe University, a junior college in New Rochelle, New York. He played high school basketball at Christ the King High School in Queens.
Mississippi Valley State University issued a statement
“Mississippi Valley State University is aware of the situation involving one of our students and is deeply concerned for the student’s well-being,” the university said in a statement on Thursday. “The student is registered as a full-time student at Mississippi Valley State University. University officials are closely monitoring the situation and are committed to providing appropriate support as circumstances develop.”
The visa problem may have resulted from a delay in university paperwork, according to a person familiar with the case who spoke to WJTV News. Session said he has requested an emergency bond hearing, but the court system has not responded.
“He’s tired of being detained. He’s tired, you know, of feeling that he’s a criminal. And that’s what he expressed,” Session said, adding, “He wants to resume going to school. He wants to play college basketball. He wants to be a 21-year-old kid who’s just trying to make a life for himself.”
Other college athletes have faced similar problems
The Athletic reports that Amina Seck, a Senegalese women’s basketball player at Kentucky State, was released on Wednesday after ICE detained her for two months over allegations that she overstayed her temporary visa.
While flying with her team to a tournament in New York, Seck, 26, was detained by ICE at Muhammad Ali International Airport in Louisville, Kentucky. According to her lawyer, Hishem Alsalman, she was hospitalized and transported four times during her two months in jail.
Deng Deng, a Southern Connecticut State University student who overstayed their visa while trying to board a plane, was also arrested by ICE in September 2026. ICE released him after two weeks in detention, according to the New Haven Independent.
“I think ICE needs to be reined in from this kind of unnecessary, in fact, illegal detention of people who have a legal basis to be here,” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said about that case.
In July, a Savannah State University baseball player was taken into custody by ICE while playing for a summer league in Albany, New York. Johan Sandoval, a 22-year-old from the Dominican Republic, was leaving an apartment complex for the gym when ICE agents stopped him and blocked his car.
Although Sandoval presented all his documents to immigration agents, ICE still held him at the Buffalo Service Processing Center in New York. He was eventually released after the school got his paperwork in order, according to WTOC News