Posts
6/2/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 2 June 2020
TODAY WAS AN EXTREMELY BUSY DAY IN EVERY RESPECT. HOW MUCH COVID WAS SPREAD TODAY? NO REQUIRED TESTING BEFORE MOVES. UNAVOIDABLE!
- TUESDAYS ARE ALWAYS BUSY BECAUSE THERE ARE 4 REGULAR ROUTES ON TUESDAY – EVERY WEEK WITH 14-16 LEGS.
29 FLIGHTS TODAY – 9 PLANES IN THE AIR
5/31/20
Borders establish a line of force that prevent those with a righteous claim on the bounty of the earth from getting it away from those who hoard that bounty. Borders may be lines along rivers guarded by automatic weapons and gates, and they may be lines more deceptively enforced, like the ones that reach along the chains of slavery to the present, link after link weighing down a people.
5/28/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 28 May 2020
Another relatively slow day, 9 flights today – 2 Deportations Jamaica and Grenada, with 1 connection. 6 Shuffle flights in the US.
-As we watch for patterns, we note that Thursday is typically a slower day; only one regular route is flown. The route; Miami, FL (MIA) to Columbus, GA (CSG) to Alexandra, LA (AEX) to Brownsville, TX(BRO) to Miami, FL (MIA). This route is flown every Thursday, no variation and never skipped. Who are they moving and why? Avoiding a judges order in Miami? Spreading the coronavirus to Georgia, Louisiana and Texas?
5/27/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 27 May 2020
A slower day, 10 flights today – 2 Deportations to Honduras, with 1 connection. 2 Deportation returns. 5 Shuffle flights in US.
-As we watch for patterns, we note that Wednesday is typically a slower day; only one regular route is flown. The route; Alexandria, LA (AEX) to Minneapolis, MN (MSP) to Omaha, NE (OMA) to Kansas City, MO (MCI) to Alexandria, LA (AEX), is very consistent.
-The number of coronavirus deaths in the US passed 100,000 today.
5/27/20
This social media space is not a place any of us come to enjoy ourselves. For many of us, it is a painful experience. Especially painful now, I think.
There is no good news. There is nothing to inspire anything but despair. And for those of us who are activists, who were able at one time to turn our feelings of outrage and sympathy into vigils and sign making and loud, righteous cries, we are constrained by conditions that threaten our own survival. Many of us are old enough to be seriously worried about contracting a disease that could shorten our longish lives.
5/26/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 26 May 2020
24 flights today – 3 Deportations – Mexico (2) and Haiti 3 US Deportation Connections. 3 Deportation returns. 15 Shuffle flights in US.
Today was another busy day with deportations and shuffle flights around the country continuing to spread COVID without concern. There were at least 2 constants observed today.
-One is that there are 4 regular routes each Tuesday.
-Two is that COVID changes nothing for ICE. There are still 4 regular Tuesday routes, all just moving people from center to center.
5/25/20
DEATH FLIGHTS – 25 May 2020
HATE DOES NOT TAKE A HOLIDAY – While the people of the US were thinking about and honoring those who sacrificed their security and lives for our peace and freedom, this Memorial Day, ICE Air was busy taking away the freedom from people coming here for protection and to take part and earn a piece of the American dream. The same America dream that those we honor today fought and gave their lives for to protect for eternity.
TODAY:
16 flights – 3 Deportations – Honduras (2), Bogata). 4 US Deportation Connections. 3 Deportation returns. 6 Shuffle flights in US.
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.