Following Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president of the United States, Jack Spehn examines the logistics behind his campaign promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. This analytic method exposes the entanglement of private capital and transnational biopolitics by examining the role of private airlines in executing deportation policies.
A harsher approach to immigration enforcement was central to United States (US) President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Throughout his campaign, he promised to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. Already, his administration has arrested thousands, though reports quote Trump expressing anger that deportation numbers are not higher. If he is to make good on his promises, one thing is certain: any attempt to detain and deport such a large number of human beings will require extensive partnership with the private sector. A look at the history of private involvement in immigration enforcement shows us just how bad that may be.
Why and how does the US deport people?
Deportation in the US has a long and complicated history. Despite some politicians’ claims that only those with violent criminal histories have any reason to fear deportation, many of those forcibly removed from the country have long been living there legally. Many of them pay taxes and actively contribute to their communities. As Human Rights Watch reported, “mothers and fathers of US citizen children, tax-paying employees, and respected community members…are being arrested, locked up, and deported under a system that often does not even weigh their deep and longstanding ties in the balance.”
The US executes its immigration enforcement policies through Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE, in turn, derives its authority to deport individuals from the country primarily under the Immigration and Nationality Act, oftentimes referred to as its Title 8 authority. ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) manages the identification, arrest, detention, and deportation of noncitizens. Between October 2020 and July 2024, ERO deported 475,790 people under its Title 8 authority.
But Title 8 isn’t the only mechanism the US deploys to deport people. Between March 2020 and May 2023, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was temporarily granted authority to deport under Title 42, a public health authority used to block the entry of those who may pose a health risk. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 alone, the US removed 550,581 individuals under its Title 42 authority.
A majority of US deportations are done by air, and ICE’s primary air transportation division is called ICE Air Operations, or ICE Air. According to ICE’s website, ICE Air deports individuals “via charter and commercial air transportation.” In FY2023, ERO removed more than 140,000 individuals to over 170 countries via 1,178 chartered flights. More than half of those removed had no criminal charges or convictions against them.
Forcibly transferring such a large number of people requires extensive logistical capabilities. This is where the private sector comes in.
What role does the private sector play in deportation?
The private sector has long been involved in US immigration enforcement. The use of privately owned and operated immigration detention facilities, for example, expanded during Trump’s first presidency and peaked under Biden, when more than 90 percent of detained immigrants were held in privately owned or operated facilities. Well-documented rights abuses and horrific conditions persist at these facilities, even as the companies that own and operate them secure highly lucrative federal and state contracts.
In contrast to detention, the private sector’s involvement in deportation is much more opaque.
To date, one of the most thorough reviews of private companies assisting in the deportation of noncitizens comes from the University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR). Their 2019 report, Hidden in Plain Sight: ICE Air and the Machinery of Mass Deportation, analysed data on more than 1.7 million passenger records from almost 15,000 ICE Air deportation flights between October 2010 and December 2018. They found that ICE has contracted with numerous private entities over the years to coordinate, operate, and provide additional necessary services for deportation flights. Still, the US government is spending at least hundreds of millions of dollars on these contracts despite reports of unsafe conditions and other human rights concerns.
Review of ICE statistics on deportations to conflict states
Profiting off deportations is problematic enough, but many of those deported are sent to countries experiencing conflict or other humanitarian crises. UWCHR’s analysis of ICE Air deportation data highlighted increasing numbers of people deported to Somalia, where rights groups reported that many of those returned faced significant danger. A further review of ERO deportation statistics between October 2020 and June 2024 shows additional examples of large-scale Title 8 removals to counties where the safety of those returned is in question. In each case, most of those deported had no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
- To Afghanistan: 153 total, 130 of whom had no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
- To Haiti: 3,161 total, 2,600 of whom had no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
- To Sudan: 10 total, all with no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
- To Venezuela: 4,250 total, 3,711 of whom had no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
- To Yemen: 21 total, all with no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
As Trump’s deportation policy expands, the administration will likely continue to make use of a wide variety of methods, including the military. There will be debates about both the costs and the legalities, but the morality should not be forgotten. The US has made a habit of deporting people with the help of private companies, who have in turn profited from these removals. The government’s business relationship with these private airlines continues despite numerous reports of abuse, unsafe conditions, and other human rights violations. To make matters worse, many of these private companies are carrying out deportations to countries that are actively experiencing a conflict or humanitarian crisis. The US should end the practice of contracting out private companies for deportation and immigration enforcement more broadly and ensure it does not violate the right against refoulement or otherwise deport people into potentially dangerous situations.
All articles posted on this blog give the views of the author(s), and not the position of the Department of Sociology, LSE Human Rights, nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Image credit: Bao Menglong
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