Posts
5/24/20
Memorial Day brings to us exhortations to exercise our memory, most commonly to remember those who died in wars, more eclectically to refresh our minds with moral hazards of the past in the hopes of avoiding those dangers ever present. There is scolding in the air. Never again is now. And more scolding that takes those scolds to task for finding equivalences among various sectarian tragedies and others. We weigh these sorrows on scales of proprietary outrage, chatter that brings to mind disputations about angels, or perhaps devils in this case, pirouetting on heads of pins.
5/22/20
We notice when things change. And last week as we watched the flights of ICE Air, we noticed something different happening. New flights, from near the border, to Mexico City.
What are these flights? They are expulsions of Mexican nationals. Not deportations. A deportation requires a procedure that involves ICE custody. But these folks are never in ICE custody. They are just like the immediate expulsions at the border that are being carried out under the orders of the Centers for Disease Control that pretend that we are being invaded by carriers of the Covid virus. I say pretend because our government has been wanting to do this all along: to hell with all the legal pretense, just go back where you came from.
5/22/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 22 May 2020
PANDEMIC DEEPENS AROUND THE WORLD AND ICE AIR ACCELERATES EXPORTATION OF COVID THIS WEEK
TODAY
23 flights – 7 Deportations – Mexico (2), Honduras (2), Guatemala (2), El Salvador (1), Honduras (2). 6 US Deportation Connections. 6 Deportation returns. 4 Shuffle flights in US.
5/21/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 21 May 2020
9 flights today – All shuffle flights within the US. It is striking to me that, with NO deportation flights today, there were still 9 flights shuffling deportees around.
Ø Today was a pause from the extremely busy week to date. Perhaps it was because today Swift Air used 3 of their deportation planes and crews for a different and private purpose today. They shuttled cruise ship crew from San Diego to Barbados to their homes. They had been stranded in their cruise ships. It was an odd flight pattern for ICE Air so we did some quick research to determine why 3 typically ICE Air planes would go to Barbados. We learn more every day.
5/21/20
WitnessAtTheBorder.org is our web page, where we document the work we have been able to do while we shelter in place during the pandemic of the the Coronavirus. And what we have focused on is learning about the deportation flights of ICE Air.
ICE Air contracts with Classic Charters, which in turn has a contract with Swift Air, now known as IAero. This company runs what we call death flights. Why do we call them that?
5/20/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 20 May 2020
16 flights today – 3 Deportations - 2 Honduras, 1 Nicaragua. 2 Deportation connections. 3 deportation returns. AND 8 shuffle flights).
Ø Yesterday we reported on 2 deportation flights to Mexico City. The first we have seen. Deportation flights to Mexico stopped with the CDC Order March 21. And before, they went to Guadalajara under the Mexico Repatriation Agreement. Since that time, and even then, most deportations to Mexico were by land, not air. We suspected that they might be resuming deportation flights to the interior to relieve the pressure of expulsions on the border. It appears from answers by CBP to inquiries and Mexico AP story that this is true.
5/18/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 18 May 2020
ICE Air continued to seed and spread COVID outside and inside the US this week through
15 Flights today. 4 Sat and 1 Sun. Today 6 planes in the air
3 Deportations – 2 Honduras and 1 Guatemala. 3 Deportation connections. 3 Deportation Returns and 11 flights shuffling around the US.
5/18/20
Colorado Congressman Jason Crow, alarmed at the transfers he observed in and out of the ICE detention center in Aurora in the middle of the pandemic wrote, along with other Members of Congress, to ICE to request, among other things, that they halt transfers and that they parole and release all non- violent vulnerable detainees immediately and review all non-violent detainees for parole.
5/15/20
My subject is breathing. How to keep breathing, when the horror of what is happening leaves you in an exhale, and has you wondering if you can win the battle against despair that keeps you in the bottom of your breath, not knowing where the spirit will come from that will suck you back into the world, and suck the oxygen of the sad world back into your lungs.
Here, on this page, we do this: we watch what is happening at one of the margins of our world. A liminal region which, for me, etches in deep relief the worst of intentions of our social order, and its worst consequences. Looking at this is a choice I and others have made, and in our darkest moments, for me at least, it is a choice I regret, but that I cannot change.
5/15/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 15 May 2020 (please share for transparency)
15 Flights today - 3 Deportations - Honduraa, El Salvador, Brazil and 6 shuffling around the US
ICE Air continued to seed and spread COVID outside and inside the US this week through
- 68 Total flights
- 11 Deportation flights
- 13 Direct deportation connections
- 10 Deportation return flights
- 34 Churn flights between detention centers in the US
Ø Today Guatemala pushed back again of a flight. Their foreign ministry said that there were 3 deportees on Wednesday’s flight that had COVID despite the US’s testing program of all deportees to Guatemala. The flight scheduled for today has been postponed and it has been reported that Guatemala is working with the CDC on what new measured need to be taken.
Ø As of today, 986 detainees have tested positive for COVID, up 21 from yesterday. 2,045 have now been tested, up from 250 yesterday. A staggering 48% of those tested have been positive.
-ICE reports that 44 of their detention center staff have tested positive, but to date they HAVE NOT reported their contractor workers. Today they told the House Oversight Committee that at least 82 CoreCivic and GEO Group staff have tested positive. 90 are in quarantine. Combined, that’s at least 124 staff with COVID. What we don’t know is how many have been tested.
5/12/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 12 May 2020
21 Flights today –1 deportation flight
TODAY WAS A DEADLY SHELL GAME DAY – 18 SHUFFLE FLIGHTS IN THE US
- Along with the 1 deportation there was 1 leg in the US that connected to the last deportation leg. And still, 18 flights in shuffling people around the US as the COVID shell game continues.
Ø This post is about the deportation flights but let us not forget about the 20,000 people that have been expelled since March 22 at the border with no chance to exert their legal right to seek asylum or protection as a result of the CDC Order. Expelled to Mexico and that includes unaccompanied minors. Inhumane. Children sent to a country that may not be theirs, alone.
5/11/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 11 May 2020
20 Flights today – 4 deportation flights – Honduras (2), Guatemala, Haiti.
- Along with the 4 deportations there were 6 legs in the US that connected to the last deportation leg. And still, 6 flights in shuffling people around the US as the COVID shell game continues.
Ø Today The flight to Guatemala that was expected based on Friday that was cancelled was completed. We still do not know why it was cancelled Friday but perhaps they did not have enough people tested for COVID that were negative prepared. Guatemala is the only country that will not accept deportees without medical papers indicating they were just tested and did not have COVID. Somehow, they are apparently withstanding the administrations pressure. Today Michelle Hackman of the WSJ reported on White House threats to withhold visas to countries not accepting deportees in the midst of the pandemic. https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-threatens-to-deny-visas-to-countries-refusing-deported-citizens-11586577586?reflink=share_mobilewebshare
Ø Today there was also deportation flight to Haiti, the poorest country in our hemisphere and one that has scant medical resources to treat COVID patients. 11 million people, densely populated, dependent on an estimated 20 working (80 total) ventilators and 125 ICU beds. Advocates have pleaded to stop these flights. Ignored.
5/8/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 8 May 2020
Ø 11 Flights with 2 deportations – Honduras and El Salvador. And 9 shuffling.
Ø 72 Flights for the week:
- 13 Deportations – Honduras (5), Guatemala (2), El Salvador (2,) Dominican, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru
- 10 that connected to deportation flights
- 13 Return from deportations
- 36 Shuffle in the US flights
5/7/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 7 May 2020 (please share for transparency)
10 FLIGHTS - 1 deportation. Honduras and maybe Peru?
Photo: courtesy of the El Paso Anti-Deportation Squad
Ø Today was a slower day; 1 deportation flight and more shuffling.
Ø We fear that detainees in El Paso (where there is a recent outbreak of COVID-19) and a successful lawsuit; were boarded onto a plane today and flown to Alexandria, Louisiana. Shuffling instead of releasing.
Ø 753 detainees have been positive for COVID, up 48 today. Those tested increased by 68 to 1,528. Of those tested almost half have been positive.
5/6/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 6 May 2020
11 FLIGHTS - 2 deportations. Honduras and Guatemala
Ø Today was a slower day yet 2 deportation flights and more shuffling.
Ø Today our friends in El Paso, Debbie Nathan and the El Paso Anti-Deportation Squad witnessed a flight from El Paso to Honduras. They saw about 23 deportees, men and women. We thank them for their witness and continuing to show ICE people are watching. It is their photo in today’s post. A woman.
Ø Today, Carlos Ernesto Escobar, a 57-year old man from El Salvador, who was being held at OTAY detention center died from COVID. He tested positive on April 24.
