PLANES THAT DEPORT PEOPLE ARE FLYING MARCH MADNESS TEAMS TO GAMES

A March Madness basketball team boards a plane.

They are the face of the American Dream—buckled into leather seats, surrounded by coaches, and flying toward a national title.

Twelve hours later, that exact same aircraft—tail number N281GX—is loaded with 113 people.

While student-athletes celebrated in those seats just a few hours before, these passengers are forced into handcuffs, leg irons, and waist chains. Among them is a child.

That child could have been one of those athletes. They could have been the next star point guard or a future MVP.

Instead, while a team celebrated on those same seats, student athletic fees were used to fly that child toward a detention camp.

The same plane that carries a trophy in the morning carries a child in chains by nightfall.

These are the airlines that the NCAA pays to fly student athletes to games during March Madness.

ICE contractors GlobalX and Eastern Air Express have operated over 30 charter flights for March Madness since March 13th, 2026.

They've flown athletes from St. John's, Michigan State, Iowa, Purdue, Arizona, LIU, Oregon, Washington and many more, some on the very same aircrafts that deported over 1,000 children, including 22 infants, last year alone.

The same planes that transport people in wrist and waist shackles to detention camps.

Of course, the NCAA is trying to keep this under wraps. After all, March Madness is all about the money they're bringing them. News coverage over their complicity in ICE cruelty would disrupt the millions of dollars coming in from brackets across the country.

We're not letting them get away with this without accountability and transparency.

That's why we've sent over 1.7 MILLION letters to NCAA executives, university leadership and athletic directors, and the NCAA's travel agency.

The NCAA is putting efficiency over ethics and profit margins over players. We're making sure everybody knows.

As a coalition of 20 progressive advocacy organizations, student groups, and mutual aid networks, the Don't Fly With ICE campaign is headed to Indianapolis, where the Final Four and championship games will take place.

We have lots of plans in the works to make sure the 70,000 daily visitors to Indianapolis will know what their ticket dollars went to.

But being frank, we need financial support to pull it all off. Now we need your help to transform this wildly successful digital campaign into a tangible, in-person mass action at one of the largest sporting events of the year.

The NCAA is flying our beloved sports teams on planes that have deported their peers, professors, and community members... let's make sure everybody knows.