While immigrants communities throughout the country were still preparing for possible mass raids by the new Trump administration, NBC News could observe closely one of the last deportation flights to Central America that took place during the Biden administration.
This is how the trip was developed step by step, an example of how a typical trip of this type develops, regardless of the administration.
Each immigration case is different, but for each unauthorized immigrant that is finally deported, the trip begins with an arrest. That arrest could come from a simple encounter with the law, such as a traffic stop, or it could be the result of a raid in the workplace or, for those with a criminal record, it could begin with a blow to the door.
From there, immigrants are transferred to an immigration and customs control detention center, which could be local or a few hours away. Currently, ICE has a little more than 100 facilities throughout the country that can house up to 41,500 people in total, but the Trump administration promises to build more detention facilities and work with the army to build soft temporary structures for detention.
Immigrants who have arrived in the United States in the last two years could be subject to accelerated expulsion, which means they do not appear before an immigration judge and can be deported in a few weeks.
For immigrants who have been here for more than two years, it is known that the time between arrest and deportation lasts years. It is not clear if the Trump administration can accelerate this process.
If a judge determines that an immigrant must be deported, what is known as a “final deportation order” is granted.
In general, the person would be transferred by plane from a local airport through a commercial airline (or, more commonly, in one of the 10 ICE aircraft) to one of the four stop places along the southwest border , who are on a table, Arizona; Alexandria, Louisiana; and San Antonio and Harlingen, Texas.
The people waiting for deportation remain in the preparation facilities, which are similar to ICE detention facilities, for a few days. Then they take them back to the airport to climb them to an aircraft chartered by ICE air operations and take them to their country of origin.
The Trump administration has also begun to use military airplanes to deport immigrants who were arrested by the Biden Administration to Guatemala. The Pentagon announced that its airplanes will take about 5,000 who have been detained.
For ICE flights, deportees cannot wear hand luggage, but they can carry a suitcase that despite up to 40 pounds. Many passengers are subject with wives, shackles and a belly chain. Children and parents who accompany them are not subject. Between 13 and 20 guards accompany the flight, in addition to medical personnel, and food is provided during the flight, according to ICE officials and public documents.
ICE Air aircraft are chartered by ICE and are standard large aircraft that do not differ from any commercial aircraft with capacity for about 150 people. To expand deportations to the levels that President Donald Trump promised for his second term, ICE would have to significantly increase his fleet.
ICE officials emphasize that each flight requires careful diplomatic negotiations with countries that accept passengers and a series of logistics steps. The countries where immigrants are sported do not have to accept them back. For example, on Friday a military deportation flight did not take off because Mexico refused to give it green light to land.
“We are talking about the plane itself, the permits to be on the ground, the fuel, the salaries of the employees and contractors, the detention, the costs, the transport. There are a lot of things that are being considered and paying for this operation to be carried out today, ”said the director of the San Antonio field office, Miguel Vergara, describing the flight that NBC News observed closely.
Once the flight lands, passengers are received by local officials, who do interviews. Normally, they also receive a medical evaluation. Then, if necessary, they are transported back to their places of origin.
