ICE's Charter Airlines Seek Privacy: A Closer Look at Deportation Flights and Privacy Concerns in the Corporate Jet Industry
CNN recently highlighted a concerning trend where ICE's charter airlines were requesting their planes to be removed from public flight tracking sites. This move by ICE to keep their deportation flights under wraps sheds light on the broader issue of privacy concerns within the corporate jet industry. The same airlines that transport professional sports teams, such as Avelo Airlines and GlobalX Air, are now being used by ICE for deportation flights. Previously, these airlines' flights could be easily tracked on public websites like FlightAware and Flightradar24, similar to commercial airlines like Delta or United.
Ian Petchenik, the communications director at Flightradar24, pointed out that commercial aircraft have been sporadically added to the FAA's private jet blacklist, known as the LADD list, for specific reasons in the past, such as charter planes during a presidential campaign. However, ICE's utilization of this list for deportation flights is unprecedented. The increasing use of commercial planes for deportation purposes raises concerns about transparency and public oversight of ICE's immigration enforcement operations.