Partial government shutdown didn't slow down ICE deportation flights, report shows

A report out this week from the group Human Rights First shows the number of ICE deportation flights were at a historic high again in March, even in the midst of the partial government shutdown.

Human Rights First tracks ICE deportation and transfer flights leaving airports around the U.S. and compiles the data into monthly reports.

Their latest shows the number of flights continued to climb last month — even as the partial government shutdown cut funding for other Homeland Security agencies, like TSA, and exacerbated wait times for commercial flights.

The group tracked 225 ICE removal flights that flew to 46 countries in March. Domestic flights, generally used for transfers between detention facilities or to deportation staging areas, remained historically high at more than 1,200.

The month also saw more people being deported to countries other than their own. The practice, known as third-country deportations, began under the first Trump administration and has expanded under the second. Two such flights set out from Phoenix carrying a group of deportees to Eswatini, in southern Africa, and Poland.