International student Qingfang Pang had barely touched down on his new campus in Itta Bena last month when he learned his expired visa could thwart his hopes of finally breaking into the highest ranks of college basketball, according to his new school, Mississippi Valley State University.
MVSU spokesperson Donnell Maxie remembered that day: The 6-foot-9-inch junior forward from China hadn’t been in Delta Devils territory for long, but he quickly caught students’ attention at the small, historically Black institution nestled in the fields ringing the tiny Delta college town.
“You walk around, and you’re a 7-foot or 6-9 Asian kid here,” Maxie said. “Everybody wants to talk to you.”
The semester was already in full swing — classes were a couple weeks in, and basketball season was due to kick off in less than two months — when Maxie said MVSU secured Pang as a late admit. As a player, he was different from the Delta Devils’ usual picks as the worst-ranked team in NCAA Division I basketball for the last three years in a row.
Mississippi Valley State University is seen on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Itta Bena. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi TodayThe Delta Devils are a basketball team with such a storied losing streak that they rake in funding for MVSU’s whole athletic department by traveling the country to get demolished in “buy games” against powerhouse schools — taking home a payout of up to $100,000 a match. The team hasn’t won a nonconference game against a Division I opponent in 20 years, but it did earn nearly $1 million in buy games in 2024.
The news of Pang’s addition ignited the hopes of fans of the underdog team such as Oliver Fell, who opened a fan account on X to find humor in the Delta Devils’ many losses. He has accrued over 10 times more followers than the team’s actual account.
Pang was taller than the usual MVSU baller, and more sought after. Coming out of high school in Queens in 2024, he garnered over 10 offers, including multiple bids from top-ranked Division I teams, like the University of Illinois and University of Michigan.
He ended up cutting his teeth on junior college basketball at Monroe University in New York for the last two years. This fall at MVSU marked his break into Division I basketball.
Mississippi Valley State University basketball forward Qingfang Pang plays for his previous team, the Monroe University Mustangs. He played for the New York team during the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Credit: Monroe College AthleticsPang stood out as an unconventional Delta Devils player for new head coach Mike Davis’ equally unconventional lineup — one that was filled with taller and more diverse talent than past teams at the HBCU. He was one of three ballers with an international background and two non-Black players, along with 7-foot center Tianhao “Howie” Wu, who also hailed from China.
“Pang is a guy who is frankly a caliber of player MVSU doesn’t get all that often,” Fell said. “A player who is excited to be a part of this team, who is certainly going to be one of the centerpieces on the squad and who brings a different kind of player and personality than Valley has seen before.
“Athletically, missing Pang would be a huge blow to the squad.”
Then, after Pang’s one day on campus, he was gone.
Three weeks in ICE detention
Pang hadn’t gotten the chance to play on the Delta Devils’ court when his new school realized his visa had expired, Maxie said. Pang and MVSU realized his transition wouldn’t run as smoothly as they had hoped.
Pang had been busy running through a checklist of first-day duties on campus. Maxie said he sat for a player photoshoot and met with the school’s international student services, which is in charge of making sure MVSU’s small contingent of 60 international students follows immigration requirements.
The staff reviewed his documentation. Things quickly derailed from there, according to Maxie.
“Within 10 minutes of him being there, they told him, ‘Hey, man, you know your visa has expired?’” Maxie said.
Mississippi Valley State University’s Delta Devils basketball team announced the addition of forward Qingfang Pang in a September 14, 2026, social media post, two weeks before he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after his visa apparently expired. “A FRESH START,” the post’s caption read. Credit: Via InstagramUp to that point, Pang wasn’t aware his visa had expired, as he mistakenly believed that Monroe had arranged for it to be reinstated, according to his attorney, Marcus Session, a former professional basketball player. Monroe spokesperson Jacqueline Ruegger said the school warned Pang two years ago to reinstate his visa and that he had met with an attorney to discuss the issue at the university’s recommendation.
Because Monroe had already issued him the necessary immigration documents, Ruegger said, he was allowed to remain in the U.S. as long as he was maintaining a full course load at the school. But ultimately, he never reinstated his visa, and he graduated from Monroe in April with his associate degree in sports management.
In an effort to resolve his visa issues at MVSU, Pang decided to get a flight to New York to meet with his sponsor, a family friend, Session told WJTV.
But in the process, Session said, he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Greenville airport on Sept. 29, amid what immigration attorneys say is an increasing wave of immigration arrests at airports.
Aminata “Amina” Seck, a center on Kentucky State University’s basketball team from Senegal, is among the international student athletes who have been detained by immigration authorities in 2026 in high-profile detention cases for what the Department of Homeland Security has characterized as illegal overstays. Credit: Kentucky State University AthleticsPang’s case follows a string of high-profile detentions of college student athletes in recent months, including fellow HBCU basketball player Aminata “Amina” Seck, over what the Department of Homeland Security has said are illegal overstays. Immigration law experts said these issues have traditionally been resolved by simply filing paperwork to reinstate the students’ visas. But the Trump administration has had an unprecedented approach: detention.
“Making an example of high-profile people is a very strong way to send a message,” said Adam Cohen, a Memphis-based immigration attorney who specializes in representing universities and international students. “It discourages and makes people fearful.”
ICE held Pang in detention at Richwood Correctional Center in rural Louisiana. Federal inspectors have uncovered a history of violations at the facility, including unsanitary conditions and restricting detainees’ access to their attorneys without any justification.
The day ICE arrested Pang, an immigrant from Peru who was being held at the detention center died of a heart attack from septic shock.
DHS wrote in a statement after his arrest that Pang “accepted voluntary departure” — an agreement to leave the U.S. — and would remain in ICE custody until his “removal.” But Pang didn’t know what he was agreeing to and was “tired” of being treated like a “criminal,” Session said.
Federal inspectors cited Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana for housing detainees in unsanitary conditions in a 2023 report, including these stained and discolored showers. Credit: Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector GeneralPang wanted to return to basketball and classes, but Session said authorities told him to sign a removal order and failed to provide him with an interpreter — a violation for which federal inspectors have previously cited the detention center.
Pang was gone just weeks before the Delta Devils’ basketball season was about to kick off, with MVSU not knowing when — or if — he could return.
“No one thought this would happen here,” Maxie said. “Yet we’re still doing everything we can to make sure we help this student, like we would do for any of our students.”
Fans rallied around the Delta Devils’ new recruit as his detention garnered national attention. Fell launched an online petition calling for his release that racked up over 500 signatures.
“He’s been gone since the 29th of September,” Fell said, “in a facility meant to house violent criminals that doesn’t seem to treat these detainees as if they are anything more than that.”
A detainee at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana, holds up a burned shirt. After a surprise inspection, federal inspectors in 2023 found the detention center violated standards by providing detainees with burned, rusted and foul-smelling clothes. Credit: Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General A detainee at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana, shows a ragged, dirty sock. Federal inspectors found in a 2023 report that the detention center failed to provide suitable living conditions for detainees by giving them torn and damaged clothes. Credit: Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector GeneralPang’s case reminded international student Israel Makoka of his time in a cell at another immigration detention center in Louisiana, after ICE arrested him and his younger brother Max in April while they were waiting for their school bus in Hancock County. Their arrests marked some of Mississippi’s highest profile immigration cases this year.
“You can’t do anything,” Makoka said, “You’re just in a room.
“You start questioning everything: Why did I even come to America?”
Makoka, who is from the Republic of Congo, spent nine days in ICE custody. Since then, he’s tried to resume life as any other 18-year-old, by graduating high school, moving away from his host family, starting his freshman year at Hinds Community College and playing for the basketball team there.
But Pang’s case hit close to home for Makoka and his host mother, Gail Baptiste. Like Pang, Makoka found support in the basketball community when he was detained after he and his brother unknowingly violated their student visas by transferring to a school closer to their host family.
Max Makoka, Gail Baptiste and Israel Makoka pose for a photo in Houston, Texas, on Thursday, April 30, 2026, after the teens were released from nine days of ICE detention. Gail and her husband, Cliff Baptiste, are host parents for the teenage brothers from the Republic of Congo. Credit: Courtesy of Gail BaptisteWhat started as a mistake set off an immigration case that the Makoka brothers and their host family are still navigating. As Makoka awaits a decision in immigration court on whether his visa can be reinstated, he has to wear an ankle monitor everywhere as a condition of his release.
“I feel a little connected to him,” Baptiste said of Pang’s case. “When it’s a kid, and they have the language barrier, and they’re trusting other people to understand the process.”
After three weeks in ICE custody, Session said, the removal order Pang signed was rescinded, and he was released from detention on Oct. 20 on a $12,000 bond. His return came just in time for the Delta Devils’ season opener on Nov. 6: a matchup against the Oklahoma Sooners.
His attorney applied for his visa to be reinstated, and it could take 15 months for his application to be processed, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ current estimates. As he awaits a decision, he may return to classes and the basketball court.
Nichole Francis Reynolds, Coach Davis’ cousin and a Washington-area attorney who assisted with Pang’s case, said the forward would play before the school Saturday in MVSU’s Halloween basketball game.
Israel Makoka, a senior at Hancock High School, looks for some working room in a basketball game versus Long Beach High School, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Pascagoula. Credit: Bobby McDuffie/South Miss 6 SportsUpon his release, Pang thanked Mississippi’s U.S. senators, Republicans Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, for helping to move his case forward. Despite their track record as Trump allies who support the president’s immigration policies, the senators’ intervention also proved pivotal in securing the Makokas’ release from detention, after the brothers’ largely conservative Gulf Coast community advocated for their return. Neither senator’s office responded to Mississippi Today’s request for comment.
But most of all, Pang was excited to return to the court.
“Thank you to Coach Mike Davis and the assistant coaches, who believed in me and never stopped supporting me, and to my teammates for standing by me,” he said in a statement. “I am looking forward to going back to school, catching up on my classes, and playing basketball again for Mississippi Valley State.”
What went wrong?
MVSU maintains that as an international student, Pang bears sole responsibility to ensure he maintains a proper immigration status. On MVSU’s part, Maxie said the school fulfilled its responsibility to manage his international student records and help him navigate immigration requirements.
“It is on the student to then follow through, and he did not follow through,” Maxie said. “So this is all of his own doing, unfortunately.”
Mississippi Valley State University is seen on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Itta Bena. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi TodayWhile Pang is legally responsible for ensuring his status, immigration law experts said, based on the available information, MVSU also bears some responsibility.
Cohen said MVSU was “late” in fulfilling the requirements that came with Pang’s transfer as an international student. Before Pang even came to campus, according to Cohen, the university should have reviewed his documentation and noticed his visa had expired. It should have obtained his international student records from Monroe and issued him a key document called a Form I-20, which would confirm his enrollment to immigration authorities and allow him to apply for his visa to be reinstated.
But MVSU didn’t fulfill those responsibilities until after Pang was already on campus or even later, when ICE had already detained him.
“It’s late in the game to be just seeing this file and the student’s there on campus,” Cohen said. “It’s like basically going to a university and taking classes before that university even has jurisdiction over your student record.”
It wasn’t until Pang was in ICE custody that MVSU moved to obtain his international student records from Monroe and issue him a Form I-20, according to Maxie. But he said MVSU didn’t cause any “paperwork delay,” saying the school’s international student services notified Pang about his expired visa as soon as they noticed it.
Qingfang Pang played basketball in the junior college league for the Monroe University Mustangs in New York during the 2024 and 2025 seasons, before joining Mississippi Valley State University’s Delta Devils during the fall 2026 semester. Credit: Monroe College Athletics“Our people, they are on top of this stuff. They don’t play about this stuff,” Maxie said. “They make sure that their documents and their paperwork is in line so that we don’t have issues, particularly in this political climate that we’re in.”
Pang’s case has also raised questions about the accuracy of the Department of Homeland Security’s public explanation for his arrest. The department wrote in a statement that Pang was arrested after he “legally” entered the country while in high school in 2023 on a “temporary basis not to exceed September 5, 2024, but illegally overstayed.”
That last day fell on his first week of classes as a freshman at Monroe. Ruegger said that while Pang’s visa had expired then, the school had already issued him a valid Form I-20, allowing him to legally remain in the country as long as he was taking classes at Monroe.
As a result, Cohen said he couldn’t see how it was in any way “accurate” for DHS to say that Pang had illegally overstayed his visa for the last two years. The department did not respond to Mississippi Today’s request for comment about the basis of its explanation.
“I think they are just embellishments and half truths or no truths,” Cohen said of DHS’ statement. “It’s amazing to see what is said and compare it to the actual truth of it.”
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