Tell the FAA: Stop Hiding ICE Deportation Flights

ICE is disappearing people into the sky — and the FAA is helping keep the flight paths hidden.

Now, we have an urgent opening to force change: dozens of House Democrats have just demanded that FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford investigate ICE’s “ghost flights” and explain why deportation flights are being shielded from public tracking. The FAA has a choice: expose the truth or keep helping ICE operate in the dark.

Families and lawyers have reportedly lost track of detained immigrants as ICE moves people across the country and deports them abroad on private charter flights. Hidden flights can mean missed court deadlines, lost legal access, family separation, and deportation before anyone can intervene.

The FAA oversees the aviation systems that let operators block aircraft identities from public tracking — and it must stop those tools from being used to hide deportation flights.

Tell FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford: Stop allowing ICE deportation flights to disappear from public view.

Human rights monitors have documented a surge in ICE air operations, including deportation flights, domestic transfer flights, and flights to countries where some passengers may not even be citizens. Refugees are being sent to countries where they could face detention, persecution, or death. Other deportees are being shipped to continents where they have no heritage, no family, and no meaningful connection.

Private charter companies are profiting from this system while using blocked tail numbers, dummy call signs, and other secrecy tools that make oversight harder. Taxpayers are funding a deportation machine they are not allowed to see.

But the FAA can end this secrecy now. It can strip special tracking protections from ICE contractors, disclose ICE air operations, investigate safety and due process risks, and demand answers about passenger treatment.

No one should be vanished onto a government flight. No refugee should be sent toward death in secret.

Add your name now to demand the FAA act before more people are disappeared onto hidden ICE flights.

The petition to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford reads:

“End special secrecy protections for ICE deportation flights, disclose ICE air operations, investigate safety and due process risks, and require every ICE flight contractor to follow transparent, humane, and legally accountable standards.”