GOP lawmaker slams 'illegal invaders' at Detroit airport. It was the Sweet 16 teams

A Michigan Republican state lawmaker is taking heat after alleging "illegal invaders" were loaded Wednesday evening from airplanes at Detroit Metro airport onto buses that had pulled on the tarmac.

But the buses, in fact, were brought planeside to transport men's college basketball athletes arriving in Detroit for the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 tournament games at Little Caesars Arena, the airport said in a statement. The teams arrived midweek; the games are Friday.

State Rep. Matt Maddock, R-Milford, tagged new Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra in a post Wednesday night with photos of the buses lined up on the tarmac at the plane, with the message:

"Happening right now. Three busses (sic) just loaded up with illegal invaders at Detroit Metro. Anyone have any idea where they're headed with their police escort?"

The post on X was later reposted by Hoekstra.

State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, reposted a screenshot of Maddock's post alongside a screenshot of a post from the Gonzaga men's basketball team showing its players disembarking from the airplane shown in Maddock's tweet.

"A sitting State Representative sees a group of busses (sic) at the airport and immediately yells 'illegal invaders' which is a pretty rude (and also, frankly, dangerous) way to greet the Gonzaga Men’s Basketball Team arriving for March Madness," McMorrow wrote in the post, which went viral Thursday morning.

A Detroit Metro Airport spokesman confirmed those leaving the planes Wednesday afternoon and boarding the buses were members of the four men's college basketball teams competing in the NCAA's Sweet 16 tournament at Little Caesars Arena.

"The buses seen in a photograph circulating online were transporting the basketball teams and their respective staffs," said Randy Wimbley, communications and public relations manager for the airport.

Liberal advocacy group Progress Michigan slammed Maddock's "dangerous rhetoric," but remained pessimistic that Republicans would condemn the language.

“Maddock and so many Republicans across the country are carelessly using militaristic language to describe an already-marginalized group of people," said Sam Inglot, executive director of Progress Michigan. "This type of dehumanization inevitably leads to violence, and we cannot let Republicans get away with using it to divide our communities and put people in danger.”

The Michigan Democratic Party also condemned the language used by Maddock, asking sarcastically if it was part of former President Donald Trump's reported efforts to engage Black people in Michigan.

"These racist social media posts are more disgusting examples of how bigotry has rotted the Michigan Republican Party from top to bottom — they can’t look at a basketball team without going into a conspiracy-fueled frenzy," said Lavora Barnes, chairwoman for the Michigan Democratic Party.

Maddock maintained an aggressive tone when asked for further comment by The Detroit News Thursday, arguing "the whole nation knows what they are doing with illegals."

He alleged individuals "are getting killed" — in an apparent reference to the Friday killing of a woman in Grand Rapids allegedly by a man who had been deported to Mexico in 2020 — and that undocumented immigrants would "get even more dangerous and desperate."

In the Sweet 16, Purdue plays Gonzaga at 7:39 Friday night, and Tennessee plays Creighton after that game.

eleblanc@detroitnews.com