Why Is ICE Using the Same Planes as College Basketball Teams?

Last week, the NCAA issued a memo to Division I programs warning them of potential disruptions to charter flights that the NCAA commissions for them during the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. In the memo, the NCAA attributed the issues to “several factors outside of NCAA control.”

One of them might be U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

Each year, the NCAA coordinates the logistics of 68 men’s teams and 68 women’s teams traveling across the country to basketball tournament sites—often with only 12 to 72 hours of advance notice. When traveling by air, teams will fly on charter planes commissioned for March Madness. 

When asked what made this year more difficult, Keith Gill, NCAA Division I men’s basketball committee chair and the commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference, told reporters: “One of the things that I’ve heard is ICE is taking up a lot of charter planes. I think the charter market is just demonstrably different than it has been.”

The NCAA uses a third party—this year a company called Short’s Travel Management—to organize those flights. The company’s website states that “STM Charters, Inc. does not own or operate any aircraft.” While ICE operates flights under a banner called “ICE Air Operations (IAO),” it commissions charter planes from external contractors. Therefore, it is possible that some of the same planes commissioned for the NCAA tournament may also be those used by ICE. (The organization did not respond to a request for comment for this story.)

Over the past year, ICE’s demand for planes has skyrocketed as the Trump Administration has, in its own words, worked to carry out the “American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens” that resulted in more than 600,000 deportations in 2025.

Between Jan. 20, 2025 and Jan. 20, 2026, ICE operated more than 14,000 “immigration enforcement flights” both domestically and abroad, an 89% increase from the same period during the last year of the Biden administration, according to a 2026 “ICE Flight Monitor” report published by Human Rights First, a nonpartisan organization whose work focuses on authoritarianism and extremism. 

Limited Charters Available

Some of the planes used during the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments last year were found to have also been used during ICE deportation flights, according to a 2025 investigation by The Athletic. The report specifically cited GlobalX, a company routinely used by ICE to commission deportation flights—and routinely used by NCAA programs. GlobalX was one of multiple companies named in a Human Rights First report tracking ICE flights. The NCAA isn’t alone. The report found that professional teams including Inter Miami have used the same planes as ICE as well. (GlobalX did not respond to a request for comment.)

Charter planes are often rented out or lent by their owners to others both in the private sector and in government. Last week, the Patriots team plane was used to evacuate Americans stranded in the Middle East amid the U.S. and Israel’s joint operation in Iran. “When not in use by the team during the season, our team planes are operated by a charter company,” a Patriots spokesperson previously told FOS. “We encourage the charter company to use them for missions like this and other humanitarian and national interest type missions.”

The NCAA did not respond to a request for comment. But its memo did not mention ICE deportation flights as a reason for the potential strain on charter flights during this year’s basketball tournaments. 

“The logistical challenge of moving almost all participating teams for both tournaments within 12-72 hours beginning (Selection) Sunday night is compounded by the busy spring break travel season, the national shortage of charter aircraft nationwide and the potential TSA impact of the partial government shutdown,” NCAA officials said.