4/30/20

By Tom Cartwright

DEATH FLIGHTS – 30 APRIL 2020

11 FLIGHTS

Ø Today there was one deportation flight to Guatemala with 2 cities involved (described below), and 2 planes each seeding and spreading COVID across the detention centers with 4 flight legs each. The churn between detention centers continues to shock us. No passenger numbers (or flights for that matter) are disclosed by ICE but there is no reason to flit around the country like this unless they are transporting people.

Ø Today there was a flight to Guatemala, although their government has said it did not mean the suspension has been lifted. Guatemala suspended deportation flights for the 3rd time during the pandemic a little over a week ago after 103 detainees returned had COVID.

- This flight was classified as a “humanitarian” flight and included 92 people; 3 unaccompanied minors, 20 in family units and 69 men.

- Each passenger was tested for COVID and tested negative and they carried their medical papers with them. So, 92 tests, which might help explain the large jump in disclosed tests last night.

Ø There are now 490 detainees that have tested positive for COVID. As of today, 1,030 have been tested and we don’t know if that means results are complete, but based on this tested number positives represent 48%.

Ø It was reported today it was reported that 1 detainee out of 46 people deported to Jamaica last week had COVID. So, we can add that country to the US COVID export list along with Guatemala, Columbia, Haiti. It would be a massive stretch in the imagination to assume COVID has not been exported to El Salvador and Honduras with 3 and 4 flights, respectively, over the last 9 days.

Ø The Asylum Cooperation Agreement (ACA) with Honduras is reaching reality. The underpinning of such agreements, that allow people from other Central American countries to be flash returned with little due process and virtually no chance exert their right to seek asylum, is that the country they are returned to is safe and there is access to apply for asylum there. There is no way either one of these assertions is true in Honduras.

- In fact, just today the former head of the National Police of Honduras was charged with drug and weapon charges.

- Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares Allegedly Abused His Official Position to Protect Cocaine Shipments and Murder a Rival Drug Trafficker as Part of a Conspiracy Involving High-Ranking Honduran Politicians and Members of the Honduran National Police

- The agreement at this point is moot because asylum seekers today never even get to this point of decision and action because they are just turned back to Mexico under the CDC Order.

Here are the flights for today. The number behind the leg indicates a single individual planes path.

- BROWNSVILLE to SAN ANTONIO -1

- SAN ANTONIO to GUATEMALA – 1

- GUATEMALA to BROWNSVILLE -1

- PHOENIX to EL PASO – 2

- EL PASO to ALEXANDRIA (LA) - 2

- ALEXANDRIA(LA) to BROWNSVILLE - 2

- BROWNSVILLE to EL PASO – 2

- MIAMI to ALEXANDRIA (LA) – 3

- ALEXANDRIA (LA) to COLUMBUS (GA)– 3

- COLUMBUS (GA) to BROWNSVILLE -

- BROWNSVILLE to MIAMI - 3

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.