Who was the Turkish 7-footer in an SC jail? A basketball player being held by ICE

Why was a 7-foot, teenage high school basketball player from Turkey named Mumin Tunc in the York County jail for six days? Because immigration officials have a case against him.

Federal records and York County Sheriff’s Office jail records show that Tunc, who previously played high school basketball in Greenville, was booked into the York County jail the night of March 28. Those same sources indicate that Tunc was moved to the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., between April 3 and 4.

Lumpkin, south of Macon, Ga., is the site of the federal Stewart Immigration Court, located inside a Department of Homeland Security detention center.

Bryan Cox, a spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, commonly known as ICE, confirmed that Tunc is an administrative detainee, but declined further comment because of privacy rules.

Trent Faris, a spokesman for the York County Sheriff's Office, confirmed that Tunc was being held under an ICE hold but had no other information.

There appears to be no criminal allegation against Tunc. Michael Rawson, who runs 22ft Academy where Tunc was a member of the basketball team, said last week that it was a paperwork issue.

Cox, the ICE spokesman, said while not speaking about Tunc’s case specifically, that any person in the United States on a student visa must stay enrolled in school or lose legal status to be in the country because of violating immigration laws.

David Cook, a Lancaster immigration lawyer, says the government has every right to target Tunc for deportation if his student visa expired. But the same lawyer said that he has never seen the federal government go after a student for an administrative – not criminal – matter.

Every person who comes into ICE custody is either given a bond by ICE or has a chance for bond at immigration court, Cox said.

York County has an agreement with federal officials to temporarily house immigration detainees for federal immigration hearings, usually held in Georgia. Most of those inmates are in York for 72 hours or less. However, there are times federal inmates are held longer in York. Tunc was in York for six days.

On its face, the case against Tunc – if it is an allegation of an expired student visa – appears to be legitimate, said both Cook, who specializes in immigration, and Sheila Cole, Cook’s paralegal who handles intake and client services for many immigrants targeted for deportation. Cook and Cole are not involved in Tunc’s case but have handled other student visa immigration cases.

“I think that the government is following the immigration statute properly,” Cook said. “It is typical for immigrants to lose student visa status if they are not enrolled in school.”

However, the United States targeting a high schooler over a paperwork or administrative issue is new to him, Cook said.

The pickup and removal of alleged illegal immigrants has been a national story since Donald Trump became president and tried to institute a travel ban for people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, and ICE raids targeting known felons have purportedly increased. However, the Obama administration also removed millions of immigrants, ICE statistics show.

Cook said he does not have enough data to know if deportations have gone up under the Trump administration, but both he and Cole said that the Trump administration has made it clear that the government is targeting anyone with an expired visa.

“I’ve never seen a student deported in this situation even though under the law it might be appropriate,” Cook said.

Both Cole and Cook are featured speakers at an immigration forum at 7 p.m. Thursday at Winthrop University’s Owens Hall that will address how immigration policies affect local communities.

So who is Mumin Tunc?

He played basketball this past season at 22ft Academy, a basketball program in Upstate South Carolina that’s connected to a small private school in Anderson. Elite high school basketball prospects, some from overseas like Tunc, play for 22ft and attend classes at the private school. Other players on this past season’s roster came from Mali, the United Arab Emirates, Canada and Australia, according to the program’s roster listed on MaxPreps.

Tunc is a spindly 7-foot, 195 pounds, with a decent long-range jumper. 22ft Academy’s 2016-17 roster listed him at 7-foot-2. Tweets from last fall mention schools such as Tennessee, Wichita State and Florida Gulf Coast as being interested in the Bursa, Turkey native. He represented his country in the European Under-16 championships three years ago and the Under-18 tournament last year.

22ft Academy has multiple locations around the globe, including the one in Greenville run by Michael Rawson. The program’s name refers to the distance between a basketball goal and the international 3-point arc.

An online story said Tunc previously played basketball at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., but he has spent his past week in immigration detention centers across Georgia and South Carolina.

Rawson confirmed that Tunc has an immigration lawyer but it is unclear who that lawyer is or if Tunc’s situation can be resolved.

Rawson didn’t return numerous phone calls made to him this week.

This story was originally published April 5, 2017 at 9:02 AM with the headline "Who was the Turkish 7-footer in an SC jail? A basketball player being held by ICE."