1/18/21

By Tom Cartwright

DEATH FLIGHTS - WEEK OF 11 January – please share for transparency

Ø 2 Days until Biden’s Inauguration. He promised a 100-Day halt to deportations. Witness with us.

Ø 3 Deportation flights to Honduras for the second week in a row. Last week were the first flights in 9 weeks following devastation from 2 hurricanes.

Ø Another flight to Africa into great danger with deportations to at least Somalia and Ethiopia, and possibly Kenya.

Ø Full Year 2020 ICE Air Report Here (click)

Photo is deportation flight to Africa boarding in Alexandria LA. By Frances Kelley.**

WEEKLY SUMMARY

  • 87 Total Flights. Down 10 from last week, and 4 above the last 6-week average.

  • 19 Deportations – Down 3 from last week, and 1 above prior 6-week average. To 6 different countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa.

  • Cuba (0), We just want to note that following the first flight to Cuba, since 28 Feb that occurred in late December there has been no additional flights as of yet.

  • Honduras (3), The second week in a row at 3. Last week was the first flight to Honduras in 9 weeks. The flights have landed in Tegucigalpa rather than San Pedro Sula, the normal destination, most likely because of the damage that remains and the devastation in the area of San Pedro. Given the damage and lack of basic services it is unconscionable to return to deportation flights, especially 3 in the first week.

  • The new caravan left Honduras on 15 Jan with several thousand people as reported. To pass to the Mexican border they need a C4 passport Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua) and a negative COVID test. Many have now passed into Guatemala. Mexico may be very difficult and they are patrolling their border with military troops.

  • A new plan for new caravan has been circulating in social media in Honduras. Yesterday (8 Jan) CBPs Mark Morgan issued a warning that was posted on the Government of Honduras Migration site warning of the dangers of the journey and basically that it would be stopped at the border of every country along the way. Guatemala has issued warnings as well, as well as Mexico. We don’t know if this hard line is from our old, or new Administration.

  • Guatemala (2), up 1 from last week, and now seems to alternate 1 and then 2 the following week. That would mean 1 next week. We’ll see. We don’t know why the flights have reduced, except maybe fewer crossings. In November there were 17 flights and December 9. Based on patterns there may be 6-7 in January.

  • Mexico (9), Same as last week and typical of almost every week over the last four months. August was 7 per week and August through November stepped up to 9. Flights to 6 different cities this week, and similar to every week: Mexico City (2), Guadalajara (2), Puebla (1), Morelia (1), Villahermosa (1), and Queretaro (2). Click here for is a very good video of a deportation flight and article from this Friday at Brownsville by Sandra Sanchez.

  • El Salvador (3), Down1 from last week 1 was coupled with a flight to Guatemala and 1 with a flight to Ecuador.

  • **Ecuador (1), Down 1 from last week and fairly consistent with 1 to 2 per week. The flight was coupled with an El Salvador flight.

  • **Africa (1) – the flight left Alexandria LA and stopped (we think for fuel) in Sofia, Bulgaria before landing in Kenya. We know deportees were from Somalia and Ethiopia, and we think Kenya. Since the plane only made one stop in Africa we think the Somalians and Ethiopians were then transferred to commercial flights to their countries. That happened on a flight in September with Somalians. Click here for my twitter thread. And click here for a piece by Julian Borger of The Guardian on this flight, and here for and article by Sarah Towle in the Boston Globe on the horrors an earlier flight to Africa.

  • 12 Deportation Connects, down 5 from last week and 1 below the last 6-week average and consistent with increase in deportations.

  • 17 Deportation Returns, down 3 from last week, and 1 above the prior 6-week average and consistent level of deportations.

  • 39 Shuffle flights in the US, up 1 from last week, and 3 above the last 6-week average.

Ø NOTEWORTHY THIS WEEK

Ø The Detainee population decreased 622 this week, the largest decrease since a week in October. Unclear as to why. The population decreased to 15,415 and is under half of what it was at the end of February. The decrease over the last 4 weeks has been 748.

Ø Through November, 385,000 asylum seekers have been turned back and expelled under the illegal CDC order (title 42) since mid-March, 61,000 alone in December, or 85% of all encounters, down from the usual 90%. November, Encounters and expulsions have flattened o=ver the last 3 months. Almost 13,000 unaccompanied children have been expelled into danger alone since mid-March according to the ACLU press release describing the Court order that now prohibits unaccompanied children from being expelled under Title 42.

Ø 8,848 detainees have tested positive for COVID, up this week by 194 or .2%. Testing increased last week by 2,385 to 82,585 on a cumulative basis, so the positivity rate was around 11%. There are 531 detainees in isolation of under monitoring, up by 44 from last week.

Note: ICE Air does not disclose their flights. Flight listing gleaned from public flight information, knowledge of detention center locations, air charter services and historic patterns. In rare cases, there may be a flight we miss, or include in error.

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1/18/21