According to the report by the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday (August 27), Tom Cartwright, retired financial director of J.P. Morgan, has tracked 1,214 flights related to deporting immigrants since joining an immigrant rights organization in July, setting a new monthly record since he began monitoring deportation flights in January 2020.
Among the more than a thousand flights, approximately 80% were operated by three airlines including GlobalX, Eastern Air Express, and Avelo Airlines.
These flights transport immigrants to other airports for international connections or directly send them to destinations mostly in Central American countries and Mexico.
Cartwright’s tracking data shows that from the start of President Trump’s second term until July, there were a total of 5,962 deportation flights, a 41% increase from the same period in 2024.
The above data covers major deportation airports in the U.S., excluding small airports like King County International Airport in Seattle.
Cartwright’s statistics also reveal that there have been 68 military deportation flights since January, with 18 in July alone, mostly destined for Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.
Additionally, the non-profit immigrant rights organization “La Resistencia” in the Seattle area monitored 59 flights at Boeing Field and 5 flights at Yakima Airport in 2025, surpassing the total of 42 flights monitored in 2024.
Not all flights are deportation-related, but many shuttle between immigrant detention centers or border airports. “La Resistencia” reports that 1,023 immigrants were sent to the ICE detention center in Tacoma, Washington, and another 2,279 were deported to various states along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Monitoring personnel note that airlines are using false call signs for deportation flights and are blocking aircraft tail numbers from tracking websites. These changes have forced immigrant rights advocates to find alternative methods for tracking flights, including sharing information with other groups and utilizing open-source exchange platform data for flight tracking.
Ian Petchenik, a spokesperson for FlightRadar24, explained that airlines can legally block tail numbers and other data from public flight tracking websites under the Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed program of the Federal Aviation Administration. This results in displaying “N/A” on the tracking page, with no destination or arrival information visible regardless of the aircraft’s movement on the map or when parked at the gate.
Petchenik mentioned that airlines occasionally enable the LADD system for purposes like presidential campaign activities, but FlightRadar24 received notices for over ten aircraft using LADD in March this year. He observed that having multiple aircraft simultaneously listed on the block list is rare, indicating that these planes are mostly used for ICE deportation and transfer missions.
Guadalupe Gonzalez, the leader of “La Resistencia,” stated that out of 94 ICE air contractors, 40 have implemented the LADD system. In addition, airlines typically use a combination of company name letters and numbers as flight identification codes. For example, GlobalX Airlines uses the call sign GXA. However, in recent months, ICE carriers have changed the usual call signs, making it more difficult to track immigrant activities.
(Information sourced from the Chicago Tribune report)