type: timeline_event
As the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments tipped off in mid-March 2026, a coalition of immigration activists launched the "De-ICE These Flights" campaign to draw public attention to the overlap between the charter airline industry's lucrative sports contracts and its even more lucrative immigration enforcement contracts. The campaign targeted GlobalX and Key Lime Air, two charter operators that simultaneously flew college basketball teams to tournament sites and transported ICE detainees on deportation flights.
GlobalX had become ICE's largest deportation flight contractor, operating more than 1,700 deportation flights and earning approximately $246 million in federal contracts since the beginning of the administration's second term. The company's fleet was in such high demand from both ICE and the sports industry that the NCAA had issued an internal advisory to member institutions warning of "substantial impacts to aircraft availability" during the tournament period. The advisory, obtained by Front Office Sports, attributed the scarcity directly to ICE operations, noting that "ICE is taking up a lot of charter planes."
The "De-ICE These Flights" campaign organized demonstrations at tournament venues and airports, distributed flyers to fans, and launched a social media effort urging the NCAA to adopt policies prohibiting the use of deportation-linked charter companies. Activists argued that the NCAA's continued patronage of companies like GlobalX made the organization complicit in mass deportation. The campaign drew support from several university student governments and faculty senates, as well as from a small number of athletes who made public statements.
The NCAA declined to change its charter booking policies, saying in a statement that "transportation logistics are managed by member institutions" and that the organization "does not dictate which charter companies schools may use." However, at least three universities — including two from California — publicly announced they would avoid booking flights with deportation-linked carriers for the remainder of the tournament, citing institutional values. The episode highlighted how the scale of the deportation apparatus had grown large enough to create visible friction with the civilian economy.