GOP Lawmaker Falsely Claims Buses Carrying March Madness Teams to Detroit Are ‘Illegal Invaders’

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (AP) – A Michigan state legislator involved in former President Donald Trump’s reelection denial has been widely criticized after the Republican made false claims that buses carrying college athletes to Detroit for March Madness were bringing into town “invaders” of illegal immigrants.

House Rep. Matt Maddock made that criticism Wednesday night in a social media post accompanied by photos of three buses near an Allegiant plane at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Maddock wrote that the buses “just loaded up with illegal invaders.”

– Does anyone have any idea where they are going with their police escort? Republican he wrote on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. In his profile on the platform, Maddock describes himself as “Michigan’s most conservative representative.”

Wayne County Airport officials said in a press release that 4 college basketball teams headed to Detroit for the second weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament arrived by plane Wednesday evening. “The buses seen in a photo circulating on the Internet were transporting basketball teams and their staff,” he added in a press release.

Maddock’s post was met with swift criticism on social media, with multiple accounts noting that an earlier post on the Gonzaga men’s basketball team’s social media page indicated they were departing for Detroit on an Allegiant flight.

“A sitting state representative sees a group of buses 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,” the senator said. Mallory McMorrow, Democrat, he wrote on social media.

On Thursday, Maddock doubled down, adding that a whole lot of 1000’s of “illegal immigrants are flowing into our country” and into Michigan. In a text response to the Associated Press, Maddock declined to confirm that the buses were carrying basketball players.

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“I haven’t heard a good answer yet,” Maddock wrote. “I took the hint and asked because it happens in many places and is well documented.”

Some Republicans who initially repeated Maddock’s claims in his original post, equivalent to Michigan GOP Chairman Pete Hoekstra, quickly backtracked.

Maddock, a Republican representing parts of metro Detroit, won Trump’s endorsement as he seeks re-election in 2022. Trump said in his statement endorsing Maddock that Michigan needs leadership “that will investigate and document voter fraud in 2020.” , or the crime of the century.

His wife, Meshawn Maddock, a former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, is certainly one of 15 Republicans facing eight criminal charges in reference to accusations of acting as false voters for then-President Trump in 2020. All defendants have pleaded not guilty.