6/20/20

By Tom Cartwright

DEATH FLIGHTS –ICE AIR CONTINUES TO SEED AND SPREAD OF COVID TO OTHER COUNTRIES AND IN DETENTION CENTERS.

WEEKLY SUMMARY – Friday 19 June, for the week of 15 June 2020

79 Flights this week. Down from the huge 92 last week, and still a bit over the last 8 week average of 75. But, deportation flights were almost the same as last week.

WEEKLY SUMMARY

- 79 Flights, 13 less than last week, all attributed fewer shuffle flights

- 15 Deportations – down 1 from last week’s 16.

- Mexico (6), up 2 from last week and to 3 different locations – see below.

- Honduras (4), down 1 from last week.

- Guatemala (2), same as last week.

- Dominican (1), up 1 from last week - flights have been occurring every other week.

- El Salvador (1), down one from last week.

- Ecuador (1), up one from last week.

- Brazil (1), up one from last week.

- Last week there were also flights to the Haiti (1) and Nicaragua (1), which were not repeated this week.

- 14 Deportation US Connections, up 2 from last week.

- 14 Deportation Returns, down 1 from last week

- 36 Shuffle flights in the US, down 13 from as last week, and below the last 8 week average of 41 per week.

Ø Noteworthy this week:

- Mexico received 6 flights this week, making up almost half of the deportation flights. Between March 16 and through the week of May 11 there were no deportation flights to Mexico – all deportations were by land. Of the 6 flights this week, 2 flights went to each of 3 different destinations. 2 to Mexico City, 2 to Guadalajara, which was the usual destination before the CDC order pause in flights, and 2 to Villahermosa deep in the south near Guatemala.

- We believe these flights primarily carry Mexican Nationals expelled under the CDC order for 2 purposes. First, to relieve pressure on border towns from the over 41,000 expulsions now between March 15 and the end of May. And, secondly, to discourage repeated crossings at the border.

- When these flights resumed Mexico said there would be close to 100 people on a plane, and although we have no confirmation. As reported by CBP, Mexican Nationals are by far the largest group they report for apprehensions. For fiscal year to date May (8 months) CBP reports 228,800 total title 8 apprehensions + title 42 expulsions, of which 126,616 were Mexican Nationals. Of the 126,616, single adults made up 112,448.

-On Wednesday we sent an inquiry to ICE about the distribution of flights to different locations in Mexico, but to date we have not received a response.

-Haiti did not receive any flights this week, but advocates against these flights based on humanitarian concerns expect one next week, and that would fit ICE Air’s pattern of 1 every other week. Yesterday over 300 humanitarian groups led by the Haitian Bridge Alliance signed a letter to Messrs. Pompeo, Wolf and Sison demanding a moratorium on deportation flights to Haiti based on COVID humanitarian concerns. We will witness this week.

-Guatemala again received 2 flights this week with about 50 people, as was announced would happen at the resumption of deportation flights. This is a substantially lower number of flights than historically as the Jan/Feb average was about 10/week and March/ April average about 5/week.

Ø Total detainees dropped 672 this week to 24,041. Reductions continue at a similar pace as a result not of releases but rather because of deportations and the border shut down and expulsions under the CDC order with no due process. Since March 16, over 41,000 people have been expelled at the border with almost 20,000 in May alone. Worse yet, over 1,000 unaccompanied children have been expelled and only 39 placed with ORR. WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN??

Ø 2,210 detainees have tested positive for COVID, up 361, or 20%, this week. 7,364 have been tested, up 2,268 this week, so 33% positive rate. It does seem as though ICE is ramping up testing somewhat. This weekly increase of 2,258 follows last week’s increase of 1,950.

-There are 818 detainees in isolation of under monitoring, and increase of 33 over 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 missed.