Here In Mesa: Hidden in Plain Sight: ICE Air and the Machinery of Mass Deportation

At the same time Mesa Mayor John Giles is all-over-the-place foisting himself out-to-the-world begging for more federal funds for 'the birder crisis' 150 miles away, his questionable compassionate conservatism is a convenient cover-up for what's been a bonanza for a private airline charter contractor at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport that's assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE with deportation flights and detainee transfer flights. It's one of five airports.

What's the difference - who cares?
THE CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS at
The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington does . . . .
They issued a report on April 23, 2019
Hidden in Plain Sight: ICE Air and the Machinery of Mass Deportation
https://jsis.washington.edu/humanrights/2019/04/23/ice-air/
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Concern about the human rights implications of the detention and deportation of immigrants has spread across the United States.
Dedicated activists and researchers have exposed problems throughout the many processes of immigration enforcement: 

racial profiling in immigration policing
retaliatory enforcement against human rights defenders
abuse, medical neglect, and death in detention
the separation of minors from their families
the mental health impacts of deportation
and many other concerns.
But until now, relatively little attention has been paid to the final link in the immigration enforcement chain: the process of deportation itself.
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Apparently that report on human rights hasn't trickled down here in Mesa, but it obviously did in Takoma at the end of 2018, about the same time Southwest Key detention facilities hit the headlines here in Arizona [there's one about a block away from the LDS Temple]. 

Just before the Human Rights report was released in April, ICE was ready to claim that 'local policy' was interfering with the enforcement of federal law

ICE: King County 'intimidating' us over deportation flights from Boeing Field

ICE claims intimidation, misunderstanding in order signed ahead of UW's Center for Human Rights report on deportations from Boeing Field

By Alex Halverson, SeattlePI Friday, April 26, 2019              "Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Friday told King County officials that local policymaking was interfering with federal law, part of a statement issued in response to an order from the county aimed at halting flights of immigration detainees out of Boeing Field.
King County Executive Dow Constantine signed the order Tuesday with the end goal of banning flights of immigration detainees from Boeing Field -- where an average of 360 a month were deported from, according to a report from the University of Washington Center for Human Rights.
"It's unfortunate to see yet another example of local policymaking aimed at intimidating ICE and our partners, particularly when such policies harm the very communities whose welfare they claim to protect, by making it more difficult to remove criminal aliens who prey upon the innocent," ICE spokesperson Tanya Roman said in the statement.
Constantine's order, issued just ahead of the UW report's release, took aim at flights chartered by ICE, but it wouldn't end deportation flights with the stroke of a pen.
It would create leases in the future with companies that comply with local immigration ordinances before companies were contracted with the Department of Homeland Security and operated at Boeing Field, using King County infrastructure. The county wasn't contracted with DHS or the federal government. . .
King County International Airport, or Boeing Field - and Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport + 3 other airports - are all a "link in the deportation chain" for ICE Air operations.
Most of ICE's statement are taken from the Trum Playbook: inaccurate
The statement tried to jump on the narrative of the criminal, undocumented immigrant -- a trope that The Marshall Project broke down in their piece, "The Myth of the Criminal Immigrant," that found no relationship between immigration and violent crime.
The Center for Human Rights' report said that nationally, 52% of those deported nationally had criminal convictions.
"Federal immigration law provides extensive and rigorous procedures to be followed before an alien can be ordered removed from the United States, including a full and fair opportunity to pursue asylum and other forms of relief and protection from removal,"
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Latest News

 

• Hidden in Plain Sight: King County Collaboration with ICE Air Deportation Flights at Boein...April 23, 2019
• Hidden in Plain Sight: ICE Air and the Machinery of Mass DeportationApril 23, 2019

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READ THIS LOCAL REPORT by AZ Mirror Reporter Jerod Macdonald-Evoy. He's been featured in an earlier post on this blog for his "Mild-Mannered Reporting"
Images have been inserted by MesaZona blogger - they were not in the original and are posted here for information purposes only.

 This report in AZ Mirror 17 July 2019

‘ICE Air’ flew more than 32K immigrants out of Mesa in less than 10 months

By Jerod MacDonald-Evoy July 17, 2019

"Phoenix-based Swift Air has a fleet of 27 aircraft that can fly customers to locations such as Chicago, Belgrade and even Cuba, but the company also is part of “ICE Air,” a network of operators who help the U.S. government deport immigrants, and flew more than 32,000 immigrants out of a Mesa airport in less than 10 months.

ICE Air is a term coined for a network of airline operators who assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement with deportation flights and detainee transfer flights. 
Swift Air is a subcontractor for the agency and has been conducting flights for ICE out of the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. 
From October 2017 to August 2018, ICE Air flew 32,105 people out of the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, according to data obtained by the University of Washington that the Arizona Mirror analyzed. The airport is one of ICE’s five major hubs, which includes Brownsville, Texas; Miami; San Antonio; and Alexandria, Louisiana. 
ICE Air’s operational headquarters are in Mesa, according to an auditor general report. "


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Of those 32,105 passengers, approximately 48 percent were being deported for non-criminal issues. 
Only 150 of the passengers in that time period were juveniles, according to the data. 
The vast majority – 90 percent or so – of the people flown out of Phoenix were men. 
The Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport was also the end point for many flights, with 11,506 people arriving there via ICE Air and having the airport listed as their drop-off point. 
ICE Air uses a number of contractors for their flights, but the only operator at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway contracted with ICE is Swift Air, meaning that the 32,105 passengers that departed from Phoenix were almost certainly all flown by the company. 
Swift Air was founded in 1997 and has its corporate headquarters in Phoenix. It also has an operational base in Greensboro, North Carolina. 
In May 2019, the company became part of the Miami-based iAero Group, which was formed in 2018. . . . The company also conducts flights for professional sports teams, college athletic programs and touts on its website that it has flown “presidential candidates.” READ MORE from AZ Mirror > https://www.azmirror.com/2019/07/17/ice-air