Deportation Flights

What is ICE Air Operations?

ICE Air Operations (IAO) is the division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement responsible for conducting deportation flights. It operates charter flights — primarily through contracted carriers — to remove immigration detainees to countries across Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and beyond.

How does this deportation flight tracker work?

Aircraft broadcast their position via ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast) transponders. ADS-B Exchange collects these signals from a worldwide network of ground receivers. This tracker filters that data to show only aircraft used in ICE deportation operations, identified by their ICAO hex codes.

How often is the flight data updated?

Live flight positions update in real time as ADS-B signals are received. The tracker shows today's flights by default and you can step back day-by-day to historical data starting January 20, 2025.

What aircraft does ICE use for deportation flights?

ICE Air Operations primarily uses charter aircraft contracted from private airlines. Common aircraft types include Boeing 737s and Airbus A320-family jets configured for deportation operations.

Where do deportation flights go?

Common deportation flight destinations include Guatemala City (GUA), Tegucigalpa (TGU), San Salvador (SAL), Mexico City (MEX), Port-au-Prince (PAP), Santo Domingo (SDQ), Bogotá (BOG), and other cities across Latin America, the Caribbean, and occasionally Africa and Asia.

Is this flight tracking data accurate?

The data comes directly from ADS-B radio signals broadcast by the aircraft themselves — the same technology used by air traffic control. Coverage depends on ground receiver density and may have gaps over oceans or remote areas. No private or classified information is used.

How are a flight's origin and destination determined?

ADS-B broadcasts an aircraft's position, not its flight plan, so there is no built-in destination field. This tracker reads each aircraft's recorded track for the day and matches its departure point, arrival point, and farthest turnaround point to the nearest airport. For round-trip flights, the destination shown is the farthest airport reached before the aircraft returned to its origin.

What do the status labels (Confirmed, Estimated, Open ocean) in the flight table mean?

Because each destination is inferred from where an aircraft's ADS-B signal ends, every flight is labeled by how confident that inference is:

• Confirmed — the aircraft was tracked all the way down to the airport.
• Likely / Approx — the last signal was within a few miles of an airport, so the destination is near-certain.
• Estimated — the aircraft went out of ADS-B range on approach (common over water), so the destination shown is a best guess based on its last known position: probable, but not confirmed.
• Open ocean — the aircraft left ADS-B range over open water with no airport nearby, so its destination is unknown.

What does the "Intl removal" tag mean?

The "Intl removal" tag marks flights whose inferred destination is outside the United States and its territories — an international deportation flight, as opposed to a domestic transfer between U.S. staging airports.

Why do some flights only travel within the United States?

ICE Air frequently repositions detainees between domestic staging airports — hubs such as Alexandria, Louisiana (AEX) and Harlingen, Texas (HRL) — ahead of international removal flights. These domestic legs appear in the table without the "Intl removal" tag.