{"id":7760,"date":"2023-10-18T12:41:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T19:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/?p=7760"},"modified":"2025-08-04T10:25:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T17:25:28","slug":"ice-air-flights-resume-at-boeing-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2023\/10\/18\/ice-air-flights-resume-at-boeing-field\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE Air Flights Resume at Boeing Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

The below text is featured in the\u00a0UWCHR 2022-2023 Annual Report.<\/a><\/p>\n

King County, Port of Seattle Must Demand Humane Conditions for ICE Deportation Flights
\n<\/b>By Angelina Snodgrass Godoy
\nReprinted with permission from South Seattle Emerald, read the article online here.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, May 2, 2023, ICE resumed its deportation flights out of King County\u2019s Boeing Field. This is the shameful result of a federal judge\u2019s ruling in April that despite known abuses on deportation flights, the county is not allowed to decline to participate in them, as it did when Dow Constantine issued an executive order in May 2019. (Since that time, deportation flights have been routed through Yakima.)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cResidents of King County should be proud of our County Executive\u2019s 2019 response to evidence of routine human rights violations in deportations on the private charter flights known as ‘ICE Air’ from our county-owned airport.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

This latest decision is part of a broader trend in which the Biden administration continues Trump-era legal lawsuits against counties and states who seek to protect migrants\u2019 rights. Last fall, a federal court struck down California\u2019s ban on private ICE detention, a decision with implications for Washington, which passed a similar law in 2021. In both that case and the one concerning Boeing Field, the federal government stepped in to ensure that private companies can continue making money off the caging and transporting of migrants, even in states where elected majorities oppose such practices.<\/span><\/p>\n

But residents of King County should be proud of our county executive\u2019s 2019 response to evidence of routine human rights violations in deportations on the private charter flights known as \u201cICE Air\u201d from our county-owned airport. ICE\u2019s own records showed that hundreds had been deported through Boeing Field without due process, some of them with pending legal cases in US courts; others were returned to violence in their countries of origin, in defiance of US and international asylum law. And some reported harassment and even physical violence in the deportation process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the flights ended at Boeing Field, researchers at the University of Washington have continued to document abuse throughout the ICE Air network. In one particularly disturbing example, multiple Cameroonians reported the use of a full-body restraining device called \u201cThe Wrap,\u201d applied atop five-point shackles, on deportation flights in 2020. In another case of needless cruelty, a Haitian wheelchair user was forced to use only his arms, unassisted, to drag himself onto an aircraft and down its center aisle. <\/span><\/p>\n

ICE also deports people on regular flights from major commercial airports\u2014and these flights, too, have been marred by violence. In 2019, for example, ICE officers beat and tased a man in JFK Airport when he refused to board a deportation flight, asserting\u2014correctly\u2014that he had received a stay of removal from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and that ICE\u2019s attempt to forcibly deport him was therefore illegal. Closer to home, ICE pepper-sprayed a man they sought to deport on the tarmac at SeaTac International Airport in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, ICE records show that even in cases where flights out of SeaTac elapsed without physical violence, many resulted in the needless separation of families after parents apprehended crossing the northern border were separated from their children, the fathers sent to detention in Tacoma and mothers and children held in motels near the airport and then put on commercial flights from SeaTac. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Port of Seattle posts signs around the terminals encouraging travelers \u201cif you are assaulted, harassed, or being forced to travel against your will, say something\u201d\u2014but it\u2019s unclear if this applies to those assaulted by agents of the federal government.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite this, Washingtonians can be proud that in 2023, our legislature passed HB 1470, a bill that insists that if\u2014as the federal judge told us last fall\u2014we can\u2019t close down private detention centers, as a state we can at least demand they abide by humane standards.<\/span><\/p>\n

That same logic should now be applied to deportation flights. If the Biden administration remains intent on forcing Trumpist policies down our throats, King County and the Port of Seattle should follow the lead of the state legislature and demand decent conditions at our airports to ensure that, at the very least, the people forced to pass through our ports are not brutalized in the process.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This article has been edited for its inclusion in the UWCHR annual report.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Access ICE Air project updates here.<\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The below text is featured in the\u00a0UWCHR 2022-2023 Annual Report. King County, Port of Seattle Must Demand Humane Conditions for ICE Deportation Flights By Angelina Snodgrass Godoy Reprinted with permission from South Seattle Emerald, read the article online here.   On Tuesday, May 2, 2023, ICE resumed its deportation flights out of King County\u2019s Boeing<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":675,"featured_media":7429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[428,13,325,362,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2022-2023","category-human-rights-at-home","category-ice-air","category-immigrant-rights-observatory","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nICE Air Flights Resume at Boeing Field - Center for Human Rights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2023\/10\/18\/ice-air-flights-resume-at-boeing-field\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ICE Air Flights Resume at Boeing Field - Center for Human Rights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The below text is featured in the\u00a0UWCHR 2022-2023 Annual Report. King County, Port of Seattle Must Demand Humane Conditions for ICE Deportation Flights By Angelina Snodgrass Godoy Reprinted with permission from South Seattle Emerald, read the article online here.   On Tuesday, May 2, 2023, ICE resumed its deportation flights out of King County\u2019s Boeing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2023\/10\/18\/ice-air-flights-resume-at-boeing-field\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Center for Human Rights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uwchr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-18T19:41:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-04T17:25:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2023\/05\/2.2.23.BoeingFieldDeportationFlight-750x563.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andrea Marcos\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uwchr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uwchr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrea Marcos\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2023\/10\/18\/ice-air-flights-resume-at-boeing-field\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2023\/10\/18\/ice-air-flights-resume-at-boeing-field\/\",\"name\":\"ICE Air Flights Resume at Boeing Field - Center for Human Rights\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2023\/10\/18\/ice-air-flights-resume-at-boeing-field\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2023\/10\/18\/ice-air-flights-resume-at-boeing-field\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2023\/05\/2.2.23.BoeingFieldDeportationFlight-750x563.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-18T19:41:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-04T17:25:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/#\/schema\/person\/709faaefbbdc883d7b3b0fdab91a470f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2023\/10\/18\/ice-air-flights-resume-at-boeing-field\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2023\/10\/18\/ice-air-flights-resume-at-boeing-field\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2023\/10\/18\/ice-air-flights-resume-at-boeing-field\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2023\/05\/2.2.23.BoeingFieldDeportationFlight-750x563.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2023\/05\/2.2.23.BoeingFieldDeportationFlight-750x563.jpg\",\"width\":2048,\"height\":1536,\"caption\":\"A plane with iAero Airways tail branding is met by a white unmarked GEO Group bus at King County International Airport (Boeing Field) on the morning of Tuesday, May 2, 2023. 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