00:00Welcome back. In the United States, under the immigration policy of President Donald Trump,
00:06several airports are part of a national deportation industry where private companies are making profits.
00:12Our collaborator, Dan Arbright, brings us more details.
00:18Yes, I'm here at Hanscom Field outside of Boston, a public airport better known for corporate jets and private charters.
00:25But under Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign, airports like this have become part of a national deportation industry.
00:33And for-profit contractors are cashing in.
00:40Since Trump returned to office, ICE's deportation flight network has exploded.
00:46Human Rights First tracked more than 2,200 deportation flights to 79 countries in Trump's first year back in office.
00:54And that's in addition to more than 9,000 domestic transfer flights, moving people between detention centers and staging hubs
01:02across the country.
01:04People arrested in Massachusetts have been put on private charter flights to detention centers in states like Texas and Louisiana,
01:11far from their attorneys, families, and communities.
01:15Advocates say the goal is to whisk people across state lines so quickly that due process can be evaded.
01:22The Associated Press reports that deportation flight operators have blocked aircraft tail numbers and used dummy call signs to make
01:30it difficult for the public to track.
01:32Lexington, Massachusetts, activist Toby Saxton and his group Lexington Alarm built an online tool that lets the public follow ICE
01:41charter flights
01:42and helps legal teams document flights before people are disappeared.
01:47We want the airport authorities, Massport and the other airport authorities around the country,
01:52to take responsibility and not allow these kind of secret flights to occur.
02:02Using strictly public information and legal means of following aircraft and our own knowledge of who these contractors were,
02:11we were able to determine on any given day which aircraft are being used by ICE for these deportation or
02:20detention flights around the country.
02:23And the Habeas Flight Watch is the portal through which people can find out.
02:29At the center of ICE's aviation system is CSI Aviation.
02:33The Project on Government Oversight reports that CSI is now ICE's biggest contractor.
02:40Its ICE revenue jumped from $364 million to $1.23 billion after Trump returned to office.
02:47In 2024, it received a five-year ICE air charter contract valued at $3.6 billion.
02:54Now, critics have raised concerns about apparent corruption.
02:57CSI CEO Alan Way and his family donated $460,000 to Trump's 2024 campaign.
03:06CSI was paid by the Trump campaign to host a campaign event.
03:10In Trump's first term, he appointed Way to a Pentagon advisory board.
03:13And Way's daughter, a former CSI executive, was one of the New Mexico fake electors in 2020 in the effort
03:20to overturn Trump's loss.
03:23Then there are the airlines.
03:24Financial Times found that more than half of ICE flights in 2025 were subcontracted to Global X, accounting for 40
03:32percent of the company's revenue.
03:35Other contractors include Eastern Air Express, Air Wisconsin, Bighorn Airways, Key Lime Air, World Atlantic, Omni Air, and Kaiser.
03:44But aviation is only one part of the gold rush.
03:46Congress last year approved roughly $170 billion in new immigration and border funding, including $45 billion for new prisons and
03:55nearly $30 billion for ICE operations.
03:58ICE spent about $5.4 billion on contracts in Trump's first year back, with almost 70 percent going to just
04:0510 contractors.
04:06Some of the biggest winners include CSI, the GEO Group, CoreCivic, and Pellantier.
04:12GEO and CoreCivic-run for-profit detention centers, data surveillance company Pellantier's ICE revenue has nearly quadrupled with executive political
04:22donations to Trump in the millions.
04:25But these contractors can be susceptible to public pressure.
04:28After a nine-month nationwide boycott and protest campaign coordinated by immigrant justice groups and the Democratic Socialists of America,
04:38Avalo Airlines officially ended its ICE contract and ceased deportation flights this January.
04:44Advocates are demanding to open the black box, force public oversight, end profiteering in the immigration system, and ultimately treat
04:54all human beings with dignity.
04:56From Bedford, Massachusetts, I'm Dan Albright, Telesaur English.
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