They’re Flying People Like Cargo

ICE Flight Monitor: 1,794 enforcement flights in March 2026 reveal a sprawling air network of domestic “shuffles,” multi-leg removals and growing third-country transfers.

A shackled detainee boards a deportation flight on GlobalX Air at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Dec. 5, 2025, along with about a dozen other detainees. (Elizabeth Flores/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)

Human Rights First’s March 2026 ICE Flight Monitor shows the U.S. immigration system moved people by air 1,794 times last month — a startling escalation that turns deportation and detention into a large-scale aviation logistics operation. Those flights — transfers between detention centers, routings through staging hubs and multi-leg removals — together reveal a sprawling air network now central to immigration enforcement.

This isn’t a temporary spike. It’s an assembled system: more charters, more small planes, Coast Guard and occasional military support, and routings that obscure where people go. The result is rapid, large-scale movement of people out of communities and often into countries where they have no ties — frequently with minimal access to counsel or meaningful review, or even any follow-up as to their safety after arrival, as I wrote about here.

The bulk of the activity has been domestic. The report documents 1,225 “shuffle” flights in March — transfers between detention centers and deportation staging hubs — reflecting a sharp year-over-year increase and a structured internal logistics system that relies on continuous air transport. ICE Air operations run through a broad network of contracted carriers and aircraft types, increasingly including 19-seat jets for short-haul transfers. Dozens of aircraft circulate daily on repeated domestic routes that rarely draw public attention but form the backbone of the system’s secretive movements.

International removals remain significant: March recorded 225 removal flights to dozens of countries, with Guatemala and Honduras accounting for a large share. Removals extend far beyond Central America though — the dataset includes movements involving Moldova, Myanmar, Thailand, Tajikistan and Togo. These operations are often complex multi-leg journeys with fuel stops and layovers in places like Curaçao, Senegal, Ireland and Bulgaria, stitching together long-distance transfers that keep people restrained and in transit for extended periods.

A growing, consequential element to this nightmare is forced third‑country transfers — sending people to nations where they are not citizens. March included transfers involving Moldova, Uzbekistan, Eswatini, Poland and Uganda. In practice, individuals are flown to intermediary destinations and then moved onward or left with limited access to counsel, language interpretation or a chance to raise protection claims — legal questions courts are currently wrestling with.

The report also documents worrying conditions in transit: prolonged shackling and swaddling in immobilizing WRAP suits, extended restrained layovers, language barriers in safety briefings and reports of medical neglect. Guantanamo Bay appears as a staging location in some routes, where access to legal support is highly constrained.

Taken together, the March data show a scaled, coordinated aviation infrastructure — a parallel transportation network built for immigration enforcement that prioritizes speed and output over transparency and due process.

“People are being shuffled between detention centers away from their loved ones and legal counsel, deported to countries where they face danger or sent to places where they have no connection, all without transparency or due process,” said Savi Arvey, Human Rights First.

The ICE Flight Monitor exists to pry open that secrecy. Let’s keep an eye on it.