6/5/20

By Tom Cartwright

DEATH FLIGHTS – WEEKLY SUMMARY – Friday 5 June, for the week of 1 June 2020

73 Flights this week. Less than last week’s 90 driven by fewer deportation related flights with shuffle flights remaining about the same.

WEEKLY SUMMARY

- 73 Flights, 17 less than last week

- 11 Deportations – down 6 from last week.

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

- Mexico (4), same as last week.

- Dominican (1), up one from last week.

- Bahamas (1), up one from last week.

- Guatemala (1), same as last week.

- Last week there were also flights to El Salvador (1), Jamaica (1), Nicaragua (1), Columbia (1).

- Brazil (2) Haiti (1) which were not repeated this week.

- 6 Deportation US Connections, down 8 from last week.

- 9 Deportation Returns, down 7 from last week

- 47 Shuffle flights in the US, up 2 from as last week.

Ø This week was very similar to the weeks of May 4 and 11 in terms of the number of deportations and flights overall. This week was lower than the previous two weeks of May 18 and May 25 in which there were 94 and 90 flights, respectively, and 17 deportations in each of those weeks.

Ø Noteworthy this week:

-4 flights to Mexico City signaled the continuation of deportations of Mexican nationals to the interior by air rather than to border cities by land. This was the 3rdweek of the reinstatement of these flights with 4 in each week. Prior to the reinstatement, these flights went to Guadalajara. Now they are going to ground zero in the Mexican fight against COVID.

-A regular Tuesday route that stopped in Portsmouth did not this week. Last week we heard that Portsmouth officials said they would deny stops by ICE Air out of fear of spreading COVID. Sure enough, there was no Portsmouth stop on the route.

-Today, there was a deportation flight to the Bahamas, which is rare. It does mark the 13th country in Latin America and Caribbean that has experienced a deportation flight since the beginning of April – deep in the pandemic – to countries ill-equipped to handle. 14 countries if Cuba is included. We suspect there has been a deportation flight there, but because of regular Swift Air tourist flights to Cuba we conservatively do not include them.

-Today there was also a deportation flight to Guatemala, the only of the week. We are waiting for Jeff Abbott’s report from there on who was on the flight, but we do know from comments from ICE to us that Guatemala is still not accepting regular flights, but only “ad hoc and mission specific flights.” The last 2 of these “mission specific flights” have included primarily unaccompanied minors. We suspect the same for today, but need to wait to see.

It is important to note the importance of Guatemala’s push back on deportation flights for fear of COVID. Jan – April there were 126 deportation flights to Guatemala. Since then, just 8.

Ø 1,623 detainees have tested positive for COVID, up 217, or 15%, this week. 3,147 have been tested, up 365 this week, below what would be the ICE target of 500 based on their stated 2,000 test per month. 52% of those tested have been positive for COVID, consistent with almost all prior weeks.

- This week ICE started to report how many detainees were in isolation or being monitored. As of June 4, that number was 781, down 37 from the prior day.

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.