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CNN
3 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
The number of ICE flights is skyrocketing — but the planes are harder than ever to track
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.
CNN
3 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
The number of ICE flights is skyrocketing — but the planes are harder than ever to track
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.
CNN
3 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
The number of ICE flights is skyrocketing — but the planes are harder than ever to track
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.
The Independent
07-08-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Biden averaged 350 flights a month shuttling migrants around US. Trump has already more than doubled that
Donald Trump 's administration is shuttling hundreds of immigrants between U.S. detention centers every month, a practice that their advocates have slammed as a way to keep detainees locked in a byzantine, cross-country jail complex, and prevent them from defending themselves in court. Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried out more than 1,400 domestic flights from detention center to detention center in July and August, averaging more than 700 flights each month, according to data from immigration watchdog group Witness at the Border. That's more than double the number of domestic ICE flights under former President Joe Biden, whose administration averaged roughly 350 such flights each month. While detainee transfers are nothing new, the pace appears to be accelerating. There were 598 domestic flights in May, 697 in June, and 727 in July, Witness at the Border found. Domestic transfers appear to be driven by Homeland Security 's strategy of keeping people in detention while they await their removal from the country. More than 56,000 people have been locked up in ICE detention facilities in the U.S. at any given point in the last several months. The number of people in ICE custody spiked as high as 59,000 in recent weeks, likely an all-time record that has exceeded the agency's capacity to hold them by as much as 140 percent. Immigrants are typically held in staging facilities for short periods before they are moved to other detention centers — sometimes hundreds of miles from where they were arrested — as space becomes available. Many of those transfers are from states under Democratic leadership to Republican-led states, which house some of the largest detention centers in the country. Fourteen of the 20 largest ICE detention centers are in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, a network that immigrant advocates have labelled 'deportation alley.' The jails — most of which are operated by private prison companies — hold thousands of people each year. Texas facilities are currently holding more than 12,000 people. More than 7,000 people are in Louisiana's immigration detention centers, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan research project at Syracuse University. Detainees are moved so quickly and frequently from one detention center to another that their attorneys and family members often have no idea where or how to reach them, according to dozens of court documents seen by The Independent. Homeland Security officials have repeatedly denied that ICE is 'disappearing' immigrants and has rejected claims of mistreatment and abuse while they're in custody. The Independent has requested additional comment from DHS. In the high-profile case of Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk, attorneys could not reach her for nearly 24 hours as immigration authorities quietly shuffled her around facilities in three states before she landed in Louisiana, where she was detained for more than six weeks. Ozturk, and Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, were among a wave of international students in the northeastern U.S. who were moved more than 1,000 miles from where they were arrested. 'These transfers often remove people away from loved ones and other support systems and can disrupt individuals' removal proceedings by taking them to places where access to legal representation is virtually impossible,' according to the American Immigration Council, which is suing for ICE documents that explain the agency's transfer policies. Immigration attorneys have also claimed that federal authorities appear to be trying to get around limits on how long an undocumented immigrant can be held in local jails, giving ICE agents more time on the clock before they have to move them elsewhere. In one recent case, reported by The Orlando Sentinel, four Guatemalan siblings held in a county jail in Florida were loaded into a van and driven around for hours before returning to the exact same facility. That appeared to reset the deadline for their removal from the local jail before being transferred to ICE custody. The surge in transfer flights follows a spike in immigration arrests, as the Trump administration directs federal law enforcement agencies to focus on immigration enforcement. In May, White House adviser Stephen Miller announced on Fox News that the administration had set a goal of arresting 3,000 people a day, and that Trump 'is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every day.' But in court filings, government lawyers have denied any such arrest targets. ICE has not been directed to 'meet any numerical quota or target for arrests, detentions, removals, field encounters, or any other operational activities that ICE or its components undertake in the course of enforcing federal immigration law,' lawyers for the Trump administration wrote to a federal appeals court last week. Between July 1 and 27, ICE averaged 990 daily arrests, down from 1,224 the previous month, according to government data analyzed by TRAC.
Yahoo
26-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
This rural airport (with a jail on the tarmac) is Trump's deportation hub
ALEXANDRIA, LA – Sam Zeidan pulled onto the grassy shoulder at the airport, hoping to see his brother among the shackled men boarding a deportation flight. A jet roared on the sweaty tarmac. The site, known as the Alexandria Staging Facility in rural Louisiana, is the nation's only ICE jail-combo-airport and is the top hub for the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights climbed to a five-year high in June, and Alexandria ranked first among the nation's five busiest deportation hubs, according analyst Tom Cartwright, who tracks ICE flights for the nonprofit Witness at the Border. The record pace has continued in July, with the Trump administration leaning heavily on the Louisiana ICE detention centers that feed Alexandria. The Alexandria Staging Facility sits on the tarmac of a small regional airport between a golf course and gated neighborhood. Zeidan squinted through the chain-link fence. A Palestinian immigrant with U.S. citizenship, Zeidan told USA TODAY he believed his older brother was going to be deported that day from Alexandria. "He's been making a lot of trouble here," Zeidan said on a Wednesday in mid-June, lacing his fingers through the fence. "Yesterday, they sent him over here but the flight was canceled." More: Trump approval rating drops in new poll; more Americans oppose immigration policies 'Cornerstone of ICE deportation flights' Louisiana's nine dedicated ICE facilities have been holding more than 7,000 detainees each day, on average, in recent months. The state dramatically expanded ICE detention during the first Trump administration, growing its network from four detention centers and about 2,000 detainees. Alexandria's holding facility is one of the oldest, dating to 2014. It has 400 detention beds, receives buses from the ICE jails in rural communities around the state and is run by one of the nation's largest private prison contractors, GEO Group Inc. "Historically, it's a facility that people will go to in the couple of days before their removal flight, because it's attached to the airport and ICE Air," said Deb Fleischaker, a former ICE official who served under the Biden and first Trump administrations. "It's designed as a short-term detention facility." On that mid-June morning, guards could be seen moving men and women off a white prison bus into the humid air, already nearing 90 degrees. Chained at the wrists, waist and ankles in five-point restraints, they climbed a stairway into a plane with "Eastern" painted on the body, blue on white. "If you had to pick one ICE facility that is the cornerstone of the ICE deportation flights, Alexandria is it," Cartwright said. "There are a lot of detention centers that feed into it." Deportation flights on the rise Nationwide, the number of deportation flights rose to 209 in June, according to Cartwright – the highest level since the Biden administration conducted more than 193 flights during a mass deportation of Haitian asylum-seekers in September 2021. That's up 46% from 143 deportation flights in June 2024, he said. The number of deportation flights has increased 12% since President Donald Trump's inauguration, according to Cartwright's analysis. But because the administration doesn't release details of who is on the planes, it's unclear whether the total number of people deported has risen at the same pace. Some deportation flights depart with seats full, 80 to 120 people, to Mexico or Central America, Cartwright said. Others – like the charter carrying eight criminal deportees to South Sudan – leave to faraway destinations with fewer passengers on board. ICE reported removing 271,48 immigrants in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2024. ICE removed 228,282 people from Oct. 1 through mid-July, according to ICE data. The agency didn't respond to USA TODAY's request for information on the number of deportations during the Trump administration so far. Congress recently approved a cash infusion to boost ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations division: $29.9 billion. The lump sum can be used, among other things, for "for fleet modernization" to support deportations. Alexandria may not hold the top spot for long: The U.S. Army plans to host a 5,000-bed temporary detention center on Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, with access to the airport on base. More: White House touts nearly 140,000 deportations, but data says roughly half actually deported 'It's Trump season' Zeidan and his family run a grocery store in Alexandria, and he drives Uber on the side, he said. But his brother got into trouble over drugs and was picked up by ICE after being released from a six-year state prison sentence. "He's been in Jena nine months," Zeidan said, referring to the ICE Central Louisiana Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana. His brother's wife is a citizen, Zeidan said, and the couple have five children. He wasn't sure why ICE held his brother for nine months. Or why, his family would later learn, he was held on the tarmac that day for more than four hours before being bused to Texas, then back to a detention center in Louisiana, where he is still being held. He shrugged: "It's Trump season, you know." Lauren Villagran can be reached at lvillagran@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: This rural airport has become Trump's top deportation hub
