Under the radar: How charter airlines fly ICE deportees at MSP

MINNEAPOLIS — A hidden new line of business is growing for charter airlines operating at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport — the ICE “shuffle” flight.

Here’s how it works: Department of Homeland Security vans shuttle ICE arrestees to the southern end of the airport. Authorities lay out shackles on the tarmac. People are unloaded and put in the restraints. Then the detainees board a charter flight that will shuffle them to an undisclosed staging area for deportation from the U.S.

Many of these flights don’t appear on public air traffic-tracking apps, and most of the charter airlines offering this type of service are little-known. Passenger figures are not reported to airport authorities.

The trips could mostly escape public attention if not for people like Nick Benson, an activist and professional airplane tracker with a 6-foot antenna attached to his roof in Burnsville.

Benson is a member of a network of aviation enthusiasts scattered around the country who have the equipment and technical know-how to read data emitted by passing airplanes and feed the information to aggregators that provide modern-day live flight observation.

“It used to be, you had to be a pretty big nerd to make this work,” Benson said during a recent tour of his garage, where a large computer that receives aircraft radio transmissions is mounted near his tools and a large Christmas wreath. These days, people can pick up a working rig for under $150.

Some airlines operating for ICE use government data privacy requests to mask aircraft from popular radars like FlightAware and flightradar24.com. But radio antennae, feeding open-source networks online, provide a closer look into the business of ICE Air Operations.

Deportation operations at MSP are conducted at the behest of the federal government and are heavily reliant on a group of small, mostly private airlines and flight crews that specialize in transporting the detainees. The Department of Homeland Security said ICE agents have arrested more than 400 people in Minnesota, many of whom will eventually be deported.

The Minnesota Star Tribune has been unable to verify the number of ICE arrestees. The agency has not released a list of those detained.

Minnesota has seen 86 ICE flights in 2025, a 400% increase since the same time last year. Since September, the federal government has stopped using military aircraft entirely to carry out deportations, according to a report covering the first 11 months of the year from immigration advocacy group Human Rights First.

In past years, ICE flights followed a more predictable pattern of a few per month. But as deportations have ramped up under President Donald Trump’s administration, with enforcement blitzes like “Operation Metro Surge” in the Twin Cities, the schedule has become more frequent and varied.

The patterns of moving ICE arrestees create challenges for families to keep track of their loved ones and for their lawyers, said David Wilson, a Minnesota immigration attorney.

He said ICE does not update information regularly and sometimes it can take a day or two to track a client down.

“It’s a shell game,” Wilson said, adding the movement of immigrants facing deportation has returned “with a vengeance” since ICE’s operation intensified.

Local activists have decried the operations. On Monday, some voiced concern publicly during a meeting of the Metropolitan Airports Commission, the governing body in charge of running the airport.

MAC officials have said the airport does not receive advance notice of ICE flights or have the ability to restrict access to the airport.

So far this year, four airlines — Key Lime Air, Global Crossings, Eastern Airlines and Avelo Airlines — have conducted ICE flights at MSP, according to data from Human Rights First, which maintains an “ICE Flight Monitor” that relies on open-source flight trackers.

The latest to launch ICE flying at MSP is Colorado-based Key Lime, whose subsidiary Denver Air Connection offers ticketed passenger service at MSP.

Between October and November, Key Lime ran 13 ICE flights out of MSP, according to Human Rights First’s data. Miami-based Global Crossing Airlines, or GlobalX, operated four while Eastern Airlines, based in Kansas City, Mo., flew seven during that time. Avelo, based in Houston, flew only one MSP flight this year, on Aug. 16.

All the flight operations observed in Minnesota appear to be transferring deportees to other U.S. locations, said Savi Arvey, Human Rights First’s director of research and analysis for refugee protection. Often these flights are destined to larger deportation hubs like Alexandria, La.; Harlingen or El Paso, Texas; and Phoenix, where deportees are later taken out of the country.

Providing service for ICE presents a public relations issue. Most major public-facing carriers do not engage in the business.

Sun Country CEO Jude Bricker said in October that the Minnesota-based leisure airline, which maintains a charter business including contracts with the federal Defense Department, is uninterested in providing ICE flights.

Along with the operational challenges that come with flying shackled passengers, which Sun Country’s flight crews are untrained for, there is the airline’s reputation and customer base to consider.

“This is our hometown,” Bricker said. “There’s a pretty large segment of our passengers that wouldn’t appreciate us doing ICE flying. We’re obviously sensitive to that.”

However, two airlines serving ticketed passengers, Avelo and Key Lime, have entered the business this year. Only Key Lime provides regular scheduled service at MSP.

Of the four charter airlines that provide deportation flights, only Key Lime responded to requests for comment. Key Lime declined an interview request, but CEO Cliff Honeycutt said in a statement his company’s policy was not to discuss charter operations. He said all the airline’s flights are done “with professionalism and in full compliance with the highest federally mandated safety standards.”

On a recent December morning, Benson lay in wait at the foot of a snow-covered hill in Fort Snelling National Cemetery.

On the other side: a clear view of the runways at MSP. From this vantage point, Benson can witness what will happen at a local base run by Signature Aviation, a company that offers ground crew services for private and chartered passenger jets.

His focus: an ICE deportation flight run by GlobalX.

Benson has done this before. Revealing his position too early could mean the flight crew parks outside his sightline.

But this one should be easy. Flight GXA6121, coming in from Alexandria, La., is broadcasting its location over FlightAware. Perhaps today this crew will do its work in the open. Some past flights run by GlobalX, as well as Key Lime and Eastern, have not, according to Benson.

The flight is late. About 12:15 p.m., the Airbus A321 touches down and starts driving around the tarmac. Still in cover, Benson watches his smartphone feed him the airplane’s location data, precisely tracking its movement off the runway and into position.

“I think we got ‘em,” Benson says.

Following deep footprints, Benson crunches up the snowy hill, through a walkway lined by military gravestones, tailing the troop of news reporters and photographers he invited to record his routine this day.

Benson is carrying a Canon 6D Mark II, fitted with a long-range lens, extending his view. The camera is mounted to a monopod, which steadies his shots and doubles as a walking stick.

Taking snaps, Benson tallies the detainees who emerge from behind two white Department of Homeland Security vans. He counts 14. One is wearing a shirt imprinted with an American flag, another is in shorts.

“Those are Minnesotans,” he calls out.

Personal beliefs motivate Benson. He says some detainees appear to receive no due process before being shipped off in chains, citing cases where the federal government has defied court orders on immigration or shipped people to countries other than where they were born. He thinks putting people in a plane in this way presents a safety issue.

There are environmental and financial arguments to be made, as well. Since the Trump administration’s crackdown, the deportation planes Benson watches appear light on passengers. Jet fuel is expensive and rich with carbon emissions.

Benson also cares about transparency. He thinks it’s wrong for businesses behind these commercial flights to try to obscure them from public view.

He considered the risks of speaking out and documenting the flights. Benson said he worried about it harming his professional life, as his business is tipping off fellow enthusiasts about where unique airplanes are landing at any given time.

“Not everyone has the luxury to be able to come out and spend a couple days a week standing on a frozen hill, taking pictures of the same thing over and over again,” he said.

“It’s important that people know that it’s happening and that there’s evidence that it happens.”

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