Secrecy, discretion and fear of a new crisis: The first deportation flights to Mexico in the Trump era

“Promises made, promises kept. Deportation flights have begun.” This is how the White House announced the beginning of mass expulsions of immigrants by air on January 24, just four days after Donald Trump took office, along with a photograph of a line of people, handcuffed and shackled, boarding a plane. These images were at the center of the diplomatic crisis between the United States and Colombia two days later, amid complaints about the conditions of the transfers and trade threats. In Mexico, on the other hand, repatriation flights have maintained a low profile. President Claudia Sheinbaum broke the silence last Monday and acknowledged that four planes had been received during Trump’s first week in the Oval Office. Little else has come to light. The state in which migrants arrived in Mexican territory, how long they had been living in the United States, and where they have been transferred are unknown.

EL PAÍS has discovered new clues about the routes, aircraft and companies behind these flights, based on air tracking applications, information shared by U.S. agencies, and investigations by specialized media. These are the same actors and the same patterns that were already operating during the Joe Biden administration. “There is repatriation on a commercial charter flight to AIFA, it is a procedure that has been going on for some time,” Sheinbaum said on Wednesday. An hour after her press conference, the Flightradar24 platform provided information about the landing of an aircraft at the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), which coincided with the president’s statements: a charter flight, operated by an airline with ties to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) and with recurring trips from the border to Mexican territory. Government sources confirmed the arrival of this week’s flight, as indicated by the information gathered by this newspaper.

AIFA, the gateway for deportations by air

Eastern Air Express flight BDQ8252 took off at 7:26 a.m. on January 29 from the border city of El Paso, Texas. No one seemed to be expecting it, nor was it announced in the international arrivals area. Under the utmost secrecy, the aircraft landed at 10:36 a.m. at the airport’s cargo terminal, as confirmed by national guardsmen consulted by this newspaper stationed in front of the terminal building. Media access is restricted on the grounds of respect for the privacy of repatriated persons.

“We take great care, not to ensure that [images of deportees] are not seen, but rather the human being, that is what we try to ensure,” responds local deputy Anaí Esparza, president of Mexico State’s Commission for Attention to Migrants, when questioned about the secrecy surrounding the flights. The legislator adds that it would be “inhumane” to expose these people to the media because “many arrive with broken dreams” and points out that the priority of the authorities is to provide them with the tools to rebuild their lives in Mexico.

It is not known how many Mexicans have been deported by air in the first days of the new Trump administration. A Boeing 737 has capacity for a maximum of 172 seated passengers, according to the company. In total, more than 190,000 Mexicans were deported by the United States last year. Of these, some 18,000 arrived by air and AIFA was the gateway for 88% of them. Others arrived at the airports of Guadalajara, Morelia, and Mexico City (AICM), according to data from the Mexican government.

The same aircraft that landed on Wednesday was used for another flight on January 23. On that occasion, the route started in San Antonio (Texas), made a stopover at Harlingen Valley Airport, a few miles from the border, and arrived at Felipe Ángeles at 12:36 p.m. Eastern Air Express made one more flight from the border city of Yuma (Arizona) to AIFA, departing at 12:19 p.m. and arriving after 4 p.m. on January 23, even though it is not a usual route on the air terminal’s itineraries. GlobalX, another charter operator, traveled from El Paso to AIFA on the same day, taking exactly the same route as this week’s flight and landing at a similar time.

“Thanks to President Trump: Yesterday, Mexico accepted a record four deportation flights in one day,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, on January 24. But this is not the only indication about three of the four flights that Sheinbaum also referred to on Monday. GlobalX announced last August that it had signed a five-year contract with ICE and that it expected to generate annual revenues of $65 million, as reported by activist Thomas Cartwright, who has monitored thousands of repatriation flights in the last five years. The immigration agency also requests Boeing 737 aircraft or similar models for the transfers, such as those used by Eastern Air. The aircraft that landed in Mexico returned that same day to San Antonio, where ICE has one of its main operations centers.

ICE expels migrants by land and by air, but it does not have its own planes. Instead, it turns to private companies, which compete for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In recent years, the agency has used companies that function as brokers: they sign the contract and, in turn, subcontract charter airlines ― although also occasionally commercial airlines ― to cover the high demand for deportations, such as Eastern Air and GlobalX, as documented by the specialized website Simple Flying.

Images circulating in the press and on social media of the flight that arrived in Brazil last week, for example, bear the logo of GlobalX. The company was behind 80% of the deportation flights from the United States in December, while Eastern Air accounted for 17%, according to tracking by Cartwright. Eastern operated a flight to Mexico just a week before Trump took office, on January 14, from El Paso. Another flight on the same route took place on January 7, suggesting that air deportations are part of a system entrenched in the United States, regardless of whether Republicans or Democrats are in power. Deportation flights did not begin with Trump, as the White House has claimed.

A multi-million dollar industry

Trump’s return to the presidency and his plans for mass deportations has put the spotlight on the enormous amount of public funds used for this purpose. A regular flight costs on average $8,577 per flight hour, according to ICE. But if it is a “high-risk” charter, as most deportation flights overseas are classified, the cost can rise to $26,795 per hour. Deportations are surrounded by a lucrative industry. “They involve a massive logistical effort: fixed operators, detention spaces, bus transportation to the flights, security services...” says Cartwright.

Trump’s hardline rhetoric is worrying various sectors of society because of the high cost of expelling a million migrants each year, as the Republican magnate has vowed to do. But also because of the human rights abuses reported by various organizations. Even if they are not charged with criminal offenses, deportees usually travel handcuffed, without shoelaces, and highly restricted from leaving their seats or going to the restroom, unless they are children or there are special circumstances. ICE maintains that it provides “dignified treatment” to detainees. “On the flight, they are offered sandwiches, granola bars, or a full meal, depending on the length of the flight,” the agency says. Sheinbaum denied on Thursday that Mexican citizens were handcuffed on flights, despite it being a common practice.

“They treated us like we were dogs,” Daniel Figueroa, one of those deported to Colombia, told this newspaper. President Gustavo Petro blamed Trump for the abuses and both countries were on the verge of a trade war until the Colombian government backed down. The United Nations called for respect for migrants, while Brazil filed a diplomatic complaint with Washington. “The important thing, I said from day one, is to always act with a cool head, defending the sovereignty of each country and respect between nations and peoples,” said Sheinbaum, although she stayed out of the crisis between Petro and Trump.

The Mexican president said there had been 6,244 deportees as of January 28, “most of them Mexicans,” and noted that there had been “no substantial change” in the number of people returned during the Republican’s first days in the White House. The new figure represents an increase of 2,000 more deportees than those announced last Monday. ICE’s deportation division reported more than 271,000 expulsions to 192 countries in its latest annual report.

The Mexican government has opted for caution and seeks to maintain a good relationship with Washington, despite the threat of mass deportations. That position has been reflected in AIFA in recent days. Unlike the videos and photographs released by Brazil and Colombia, in Mexico there have been no images of the deportees, there is no updated number of people who have arrived by air, and there have been hardly any public statements about the flights. “Mexico is waiting for you with open arms and has not forgotten you,” Sheinbaum said on January 20, hours before Trump took office.

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