Flights out of Los Angeles area airports related to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations more than doubled in the month before Sunday.
ICE increased its activity in the region this month, conducting multiple raids, including one on June 6 in the Fashion District. As a result of the raids, 330 people have been arrested as of June 11, according to the White House, some of whom were flown out of the area. ICE hasn’t released many details regarding detainees.
An ICE spokesperson told The Times that the agency does not provide details about future flights for security reasons. “ICE field offices coordinate with ICE Air Operations, headquartered in Mesa, Ariz., to arrange removal travel and domestic transfers, which are conducted using both commercial airlines and ICE Air charter aircraft,” the spokesperson said in an email.
The Times reviewed and analyzed public flight data compiled by Tom Cartwright, a volunteer immigration advocate at Witness at the Border who tracks ICE flights. Cartwright has tracked about 36,000 ICE flights over five years by using publicly available plane details and flight patterns.
Since the June raids began, nearly 70% of deportation-related flights out of the L.A. region have originated out of the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, near the Adelanto ICE Processing Center. The airport in Victorville is a public-use airport where charter airlines can operate nonscheduled private flights. Sue Jones, a spokesperson for Victorville, told The Times that because flight details are not tracked, the city cannot confirm ICE-related activity.
There have also been reports of flights out of the Los Angeles area departing from other airports, including Burbank International and Meadows Field in Bakersfield.
Since June 6, a quarter of the flights have gone directly to nearby Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. About a fifth of flights head to El Paso, where the Mexican Consulate told The Times that some seized in L.A. are being detained.
In addition to its headquarters, ICE Air Operations operates primarily from Miami; Alexandria, La.; and San Antonio and Brownsville, Texas.
Charter planes making ICE-related flights can make multiple stops or transfers in a day, both inside and outside the United States. However, the journey the passengers take — where they board and disembark — cannot be tracked using publicly available data.
Overall, from Jan. 1 through May, ICE has made 685 deportation stops to more than 30 international destinations, according to Witness at the Border’s latest report. Roughly the same as the same time last year. ICE confirmed to The Times that the agency regularly flies deportees to countries in Central America, including Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, as well as other parts of the world “for special high-risk missions.”
For planes flying through Victorville, some made stops later at airports in cities such as Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Harlingen, Texas. Other destinations outside the continental U.S. include: San Juan, Puerto Rico; San Pedro Sula, Honduras; Tapachula, Mexico; Guatemala City; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
