Title : 'ICE Air': The fleet of Boeing 737s owned by immigration officials they say is 'like Con Air'
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'ICE Air': The fleet of Boeing 737s owned by immigration officials they say is 'like Con Air'
'ICE Air': The fleet of Boeing 737s owned by immigration officials they say is 'like Con Air' and ships immigrants home every week
- ICE Air Operations is a division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- The unit operates hundreds of flights a year, deporting some 100,000 aliens
- Boeing 737 planes fly domestically to and from 24 field offices around country
- They also fly to 'high volume' countries to repatriate Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Salvadorians
- In last decade, U.S. has spent more than $1billion on deportation flights
- Aliens are shackled at wrists and ankles before they board the aircraft
- Chains are removed and shoelaces are given back to them when plane lands
- Aliens from distant lands are flown commercially with an agent escorting them
Federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement who recently rounded up some 32 illegal immigrants throughout New England will put them on an airplane for a one-way flight on ‘ICE Air.’
‘We call it ICE Air, similar to “Con Air”,’ an immigration official told the Boston Herald.
Con Air is a reference to the 1997 blockbuster film in which Nicolas Cage portrays a felon on parole who tries to stop inmates from hijacking a prison transport flight in mid-air.
Immigration officials say ‘Operation Crosscheck’, a five-day dragnet conducted in May, was aimed at deporting illegal aliens who have already been ordered out of the country.
The would-be deportees are usually flown out of Pease Air National Guard Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
The image above shows Guatemalan men walk from a deportation flight chartered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the aircraft landed in Guatemala City on May 30, 2019
Guatemalan men are seen deplaning from the ICE Air flight in Guatemala City on May 30
The planes usually take the detainees to ICE Air hubs in Louisiana and Texas. From there, they are flown to Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and beyond.
In some cases, ICE officials buy plane tickets on commercial flights for an agent to accompany a deportee to far-flung places like Iraq, Germany, and Israel.
ICE officials said that of the 32 suspects caught in the New England dragnet, 27 of them have been convicted of crimes, including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, identity theft, credit card fraud, and unlawful possession of a firearm.
ICE Air Operations transports detained immigrants between American cities and, for those with final removal orders, back to their home countries.
About 100,000 people a year are deported on such flights.
ICE Air, an obscure division of the controversial federal agency, operates hundreds of flights each year to remove immigrants.
Deportation flights are big business: The U.S. government has spent approximately $1billion on them in the last decade, and the Trump administration is seeking to raise ICE's budget for charter flights by 30 percent.
While Mexican immigrants are generally flown to southern U.S. cities and then driven to the border so they can cross over, Central Americans have to be transported by air.
And the large numbers of Mexicans who used to cross the border have largely been replaced by migrants from three impoverished Central American countries: El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
According to flight-tracking data, deportation flights to Guatemala and Honduras sharply increased in 2018.
And ICE's budget request for charter flights increased 30 percent in 2017 compared to 2016.
The flights carry some 100,000 illegal immigrants per year. Before boarding, they are shackled by their wrists and feet. The above image shows shackled undocumented migrants on an ICE charter flight in Mesa, Arizona on October 15, 2015
The agency estimated two years ago that it spends about $7,785 per hour on the flights.
ICE shifted to chartering private planes about a decade ago after previously using a government service with the U.S. Marshals.
The agency says moving to private flights saves about $25million a year and gave it more flexibility.
Charter flights also avoid putting large numbers of deported immigrants on commercial planes, which requires buying tickets for deportation officers accompanying them, or holding them in the U.S. for longer than necessary and tying up space in detention centers.
ICE operates flights to and from 24 domestic destinations and origins as well as to 'high volume' countries like Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The image above shows Guatemalan men after landing in Guatemala City on May 30
‘I don't want to elongate anybody's detention with us,’ said Pat Contreras, director of enforcement and removal for ICE's Houston field office. "If a judge says you need to be removed, we should be expeditiously working to execute that order so that person does not spend any longer in detention than necessary."
But migrant advocacy groups say ICE Air is an example of how tougher immigration enforcement - from detention to tracking to removal - enriches private companies.
‘The way you would save money on ICE Air is by deporting fewer people, not by privatizing the industry,’ said Bob Libal, director of Grassroots Leadership, which opposes immigration detention.
‘ICE is a largely privatized agency,’ Libal said. ‘In many ways, it's been captured by the industries that profit from deportation and detention.’
In November 2018, the Associated Press observed a deportation flight being loaded at a private terminal of Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
The Boeing 737 had no markings suggesting it was a deportation flight.
An immigration official says that the flights are similar to 'Con Air' - a reference to the 1997 blockbuster film starring Nicolas Cage about a mid-air hijacking of a prison transport flight. The above image from November 2018 shows shackles used for detainees on board flights
Instead, it had the insignia of Swift Air, a private company that also flies charters for political campaigns and professional sports teams, including the NHL's Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks.
In this case, Swift Air had been hired by Classic Air Charters, a Huntington, New York-based company that won ICE's deportation flights contract last year.
Classic Air was paid $51million last year by ICE, according to federal spending records.
The previous contractor, CSI Aviation of New Mexico, was paid $906 million by ICE's removals division since 2010, when ICE privatized its flights.
Shackled at their ankles and wrists and their shoelaces removed, a long line of men and women waited on the tarmac as a team of officers patted them down and checked inside their mouths for anything hidden.
The U.S. government has spent approximately $1billion on ICE Air flights in the last decade, and the Trump administration is seeking to raise ICE's budget for charter flights by 30 percent
Then one by one, they climbed a mobile staircase and onto a charter plane the size of a commercial aircraft.
This was a deportation flight run by ICE Air. The chains would be removed and the shoelaces returned when the plane landed in El Salvador.
When the plane landed in Houston, about 30 Salvadoran immigrants were already on board, flown in from Alexandria, Louisiana, an ICE Air hub.
They peered out the windows as the plane sat on the tarmac.
Two buses arrived, carrying 45 men and five women. Their few belongings were in red mesh bags that workers sorted on the tarmac.
Officers checked each detainee before letting them board, a process that took about 20 minutes.
According to the agency, 29 of the 50 people who boarded the plane in Houston had been arrested on criminal charges, including four who were wanted in El Salvador for attempted murder or homicide, the agency said.
A Guatemalan woman wipes away tears upon seeing her son after he arrived on an ICE deportation flight in Guatemala City on February 9, 2017
The remaining 21 were considered non-criminal, meaning they were being deported for immigration violations.
Twenty of the 50 had been deported before.
ICE would not let AP reporters view the inside of the plane, but officials said the flights are orderly and quiet.
A meal is served, and a doctor is on board. But all detainees - even those considered non-criminal - remain shackled until the plane lands.
‘We try and be as humane as we can with everything that we do,’ Contreras said.
‘We try to make them safe. We want to make sure that not one individual does anything wrong.’
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