Where Data Tells the Story
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The number of deportation flights has ramped up in the United States since May, according to data collected and analysed by Thomas Cartwright for Witness at the Border. In January, 109 flights were recorded by the immigrant advocacy group. June and July each saw more than 200 deportation flights, the highest figures since Cartwright started tracking flights in 2020.
Most flights carried out on behalf of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are domestic shuffles between detention facilities. This is where people are ferried from one part of the U.S., largely based on detention center bed availability following the rise in ICE arrests. Between January and July of this year, Cartwright counted 3,650 domestic shuffle flights, compared to 1,539 connections and returns and 1,101 removals flights. As the following chart shows, domestic shuffle flights accelerated this year, rising from 273 flights in January to 727 in July.
The U.S. military have carried out 68 deportation flights from January through July, nine of which passed through Guantanamo. However, the majority of flights are being operated by charter airlines. In July, GlobalX Air operated 50 percent of total flights, followed by Eastern Air Express at 24 percent, Avelo at 20 percent, military at 2 percent and other carriers at four percent. This is proving to be a big business for some of these airlines, with more than half of GlobalX’s revenue having come from ICE in Q2 2025, as reported by the Financial Times.
Since ICE Air does not disclose information or data about their flights, this data is based on flight information from the publicly available FlightAware application, FlightRadar24, AirNav, and the ADB-S tracking system.