The number of ICE flights is skyrocketing — but the planes are harder than ever to track

CNN

a day ago

Amid the hubbub of passengers and planes shuttling in and out of the international airport in Richmond, Virginia, each week there's also a steady stream of flights bearing men and women in handcuffs.
Last week, CNN was there to see some of these passengers — detainees in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement — being unloaded from unmarked white vans, lined up under the wing of a Boeing 737. One by one, some 50 detainees were told to board the aircraft.
According to data from immigrant advocacy group Witness at the Border, Richmond is one of about 70 domestic hubs that the Trump administration has used as stoppage points for ICE flights that shuttle detainees in its custody between detention centers around the country, with the goal of eventually deporting them.
As President Donald Trump moves to remove as many as 1 million immigrants a year from the US, putting more detainees on more airplanes, and with more frequency, has become a key feature of carrying out that endeavor.
Though flights have been a part of US immigration operations for years, the speed and scale of the ICE program today is unprecedented. Since Trump's inauguration, there have been more than 1,000 deportation flights to other countries, up 15% over the January to July period last year, according to Witness at the Border.
The flights are operated by a mix of private charter companies and at least one commercial airline, who are subcontractors to ICE, with a smaller portion carried out by military aircrafts.
But recently, experts have noticed a new trend.
Beginning in March, major companies operating the flights began requesting that their tail numbers — identifiers for planes akin to license plates on cars — be removed from public flight-tracking websites, according to Ian Petchenik of Flightradar24, one such website.
These websites provide real-time tracking of flights, displaying their positions, routes and other relevant data. They help consumers track flight delays, but are also a notable tool for public accountability.
The move to block tail numbers became possible after the Federal Aviation Administration last year broadened its rules to allow companies the ability to request their information be removed by filling out a form online.
This means that even as more flights are carrying ICE detainees, they have become much harder to track, raising accountability concerns.
'This is vital information to be able to understand how ICE is conducting its enforcement and deportation activities,' said Eunice Cho, senior counsel for the ACLU National Prison Project. 'Sometimes this is the only information that the public has with respect to where ICE is placing people because of a general lack of transparency around detention and deportation under this particular administration.'
These changes have made it far harder for relatives of those detained and transported by ICE to find their loved ones, according to Guadalupe Gonzalez, a spokesperson for La Resistencia, an immigration advocacy group. 'Families can't track where their loved ones are being sent, they're just being disappeared.'
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not return CNN's request for comment to clarify whether the agency had requested the tail numbers be hidden and why.
A spokesperson for Avelo Airlines, a commercial airline that has devoted three of its aircraft to ICE flights, told CNN in an email: 'Flights operated on behalf of the United States government are often unidentified at the government's request. As subcontractors to the United States government, we ask that you direct your questions to them.'
GlobalX Airlines, a charter company, told CNN in an email that it 'is not authorized to comment on matters related to the ICE contract,' and referred CNN to ICE. Eastern Air Express, another major charter flight provider, did not respond to a request for comment.
Immigration flights have taken place under Democratic as well as Republican administrations in the past, but the increase is notable in its expansiveness as well as volume.
Besides the increase in deportation flights, there has been an even bigger rise in flights transporting detainees between airports within the US, according to Witness at the Border. These trips move detainees between detention facilities, as more ICE arrests means those in custody are being shuffled between sites around the country in a complex, coordinated scramble to find available beds.
In July, Tom Cartwright of Witness at the Border tracked 207 deportation flights to several dozen countries, but 727 domestic 'shuffle flights' of ICE detainees being moved within the US — the highest number since he began tracking flights in 2020, he said.
A vast network of private firms operates the flights, and the industry around them, from refueling to security.
Today, the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based CSI Aviation is the largest private contractor for ICE Air. It does not operate flights directly but rather acts as the federal government's main broker for subcontracting flights and flight-related operations.
In February 2025, CSI Aviation won an award of $128 million as the prime contractor for ICE flight operations. The contract is now worth more than $321 million.
The company works with subcontractors that operate the flights. Among the top subcontractors for flights in July were GlobalX, Eastern Air Express and Avelo Airlines, according to data from Witness at the Border.
Leaders at firms involved in the administration's deportation operation have strongly backed Trump and his party.
CSI Aviation CEO Allen Weh is a GOP donor who has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the party and its candidates. The company hosted a Trump campaign rally at one of its hangars in Albuquerque in October 2024. Eastern Air Express, which Witness at the Border observed operating 24% of ICE flights in July, also owned and operated a 737 used for the Trump/Vance campaign.
Last month, La Resistencia, which has been tracking ICE flights on the US West Coast, noted in a report on these activities that in addition to masking their tail numbers, flights are also changing their air traffic call signs.
An air traffic call sign is an identifier a flight uses to communicate with air traffic controllers and usually contains some indication of the flight's operator.
The air traffic call sign now being used by most of these ICE flights is 'Tyson '— the same call sign Trump used for his personal plane after he was elected in 2016.
La Resistencia said in its report: 'We have witnessed extensive efforts on behalf of ICE air contractors to make their immigration work as hard to observe as possible.'
Gonzalez, the La Resistencia spokesperson, said: 'Our biggest concern is transparency. If we can't observe how humans are being treated, we are worried human rights will be violated.'
CNN's Audrey Ash contributed to this report.