1/23/21
By Tom Cartwright
Very Important! Please Read the Headlines below to understand why the ICE Air Machine Will Continue to Grind.
Biden Inauguration – 100-day deportation moratorium – One day ICE Air grounding - Honduran Caravan stopped and broken up by Guatemala – Another flight to Africa . Click on the topic in the note above and you will link to more information.
Ø People “expelled” at the border are done so based on the excuse of health safety under the CDC order (title 42) which has put a tourniquet around the border since mid-March. Between Ap and Dec 417,000 people have come to our southern border to seek protection. 373,000 of them were summarily sent back by land into Mexico (I est. 320,000,) or by air to their countries with no due process.
Ø These expulsions under the CDC order continue today. Literally, with a flight to Mexico. And they will continue.
Ø The flights will not stop until the CDC order is rescinded. That is our fight. Rescind the CDC Order.
Ø This week, 16 deportation/expulsion flights to 9 different countries and 71 total ICE Air flights.
Ø Expecting flights for expulsions to resume next week with perhaps a reduced schedule – and hopefully fewer flights shuffling people between detention centers in the US.
WEEKLY SUMMARY
- 71 Total Flights. Down 16 from last week, and 10 below the last 6-week average.
- 16 Deportations – Down 3 from last week, and 2 below the prior 6-week average. To 9 different countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa.
- Honduras (2), Down 1 from the prior 2 weeks only because of the operational grounding on Friday. I expect 3 again this week on the basis that there may still be many people held under title 42 in the US because of the 9-week flight suspension following the 2 hurricanes. Given the damage and lack of basic services it is unconscionable to return to deportation/expulsion flights. Ironic in light of 6,000-9,000 trying to flee at the same time. Pressure is building in Honduras and that will push more to leave.
- Guatemala (1), down 1 from last week, and now seems to alternate 1 and then 2 the following week. That would mean 2 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 (7), Down 2 from last week only because of the Friday halt. August was 7 per week and August through November stepped up to 9. Flights to 5 different cities this week, and similar to every week: Mexico City (2), Guadalajara (2), Puebla (1), Morelia (1), Villahermosa (1), and
- El Salvador (1), Down 2 from last week and also halt-impacted.
- Trinidad/Tobago (1), very sporadic and the first since November.
- Africa (1) – the small Gulfstream charter with 6-8 people left Phoenix for Gambia and Mauritania, a country that just banned slavery in the 1980s and with many vestiges still in place. Click here for my twitter thread. And here for a piece by Noah Lanard of Mother Jones.
- Dominica (1), continuing about every 2 -3 weeks.
- Haiti (1), continues every other Tuesday
- Nicaragua (1), up 1 this week with 1 every week or 2.
- 10 Deportation Connects, down 2 from last week and 3 below the last 6-week average and consistent with increase in deportations.
- 13 Deportation Returns, down 4 from last week, and 2 below the prior 6-week average and consistent level of deportations.
- 32 Shuffle flights in the US, down 7 from last week, and 3 below the last 6-week average.
Ø NOTEWORTHY THIS WEEK
Ø The Detainee population decreased 700 this week, and that follows a decreased of 622 last week. We have not seen this pace of decrease since Oct/Nov 2020. Unclear as to why. The population decreased to 14,715 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 December, 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 over 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 8,991 detainees have tested positive for COVID, up this week by 143 or .2%. Testing increased last week by 3,638 to 86,223 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.