ICE Air Operations
ICE Air Operations (IAO) is ICE’s primary air transportation division.
IAO stages a total of 12 aircraft at its operational locations in Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.
ICE Air based in Mesa, Arizona has additional locations in San Antonio and Brownsville in Texas, Alexandria in Louisiana, and Miami in Florida. They are staging areas for deportations.
It supports 24 ICE field offices with the transfer and removal of noncitizens via chartered and commercial flights.
There are many U.S.-flagged airlines taking the ICE charter contracts, including the reinvented Eastern Airlines which converted a 767 used for the New England Patriots to handle deportations to Brazil and Venezuela.
Private air charter companies make billions deporting immigrants with little oversight. A New Mexico firm, CSI Aviation, that donated hundred of thousands of dollars to Trump and GOP super PACs won a $3.6 billion contract.
Air charter companies
Classic Air Charter
With CAC's contract expiring last year, ICE issued an emergency contract valued at $300 million to CSI Aviation, which ran from July 2023 to March of this year, when it was subsequently extended into a full 5-year contract. The total contract ceiling is a whopping $3.6 billion, and unsurprisingly, given this vast amount, legal wrangling is underway between CSI, CAC, and another potential bidder, Chapman Freeborn Airchartering, regarding the awarding of the contract.
Sarah Betancourt February 12, 2025
It is the first large-scale proof that the new Trump administration is transferring scores of detainees out of New England as part of its ongoing effort to deport immigrants, a key campaign promise. A flight on the privately chartered Eastern Air Express, which contracts with the agency, left from Bedford, Massachusetts after 1 a.m. on Feb. 2. On it, according to multiple sources, were about 40 ICE detainees.
ICE charter flights by GlobalX have been removed from many flight trackers, and given the call sign TYSON --previously associated w/ Secret Service and a B52 bomber squadron.
Joseph Cox, Jason Koebler May 5, 2025
has grown to become the world's largest network of Fixed Base Operations (FBOs). Signature is headquartered in Orlando, Florida, with over 200 locations.
Bill Gates & the Gates Foundation own 30% of Signature Aviation. It's managed by Cascade Investment LLC worked with Black Rock & Blackstone to purchase Signature in 2021.
ICE Air Operations: Which Aircraft Are Used & How Many Flights Are Operated?
Private Airlines Are Making Billions on Deportations
Inside ICE Air: Flight Attendants on Deportation Planes Say Disaster Is “Only a Matter of Time”
