Latest news with #WitnessattheBorder
Metro
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Metro
Fact check: Is the US using planes for deportations to throw people into the ocean?
Since taking office again in January, Donald Trump 's administration has deported thousands on flights to countries in Latin America. According to data from Witness at the Border, more than 600 deportation flights have taken off since Trump's order earlier this year. The sheer number of arrests in America and the increased aggressive tactics by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have sparked outrage among Americans and others. Immigration raids in Los Angeles last month caused intense backlash, causing the city to introduce a curfew and prompting Trump to deploy the National Guard. Trump was slammed for deporting many of these migrants without a fair trial, to which he replied: ' You can't have a trial for all of these people. 'Look, we are getting some very bad people, killers, murderers, drug dealers, really bad people, the mentally ill, the mentally insane, they emptied out insane asylums into our country, we're getting them out. 'And a judge can't say: 'No, you have to have a trial,'' Trump claimed. 'No, we are going to have a very dangerous country if we are not allowed to do what we are entitled to do.' @vbne871 06/29/2025-ICE says they deport people safely but why use expensive military cargo planes that don't always land? Why are shackled bodies washing up in Europe? Why are immigrants being taken to countries that aren't their own? And why are fake agents abducting immigrants? We need answers. #StayAlert Like, comment 'part 2' if you want a breakdown of the flight data and court process. #ICE #DeportationFlights #HumanRights #MigrantJustice #ImmigrationNews #StopTheHate #DueProcess #FactCheck #TikTokNews #ImmigrantRights #Staylnformed ♬ original sound – vbne871 As tensions continue to boil over, some TikTokers have begun making outlandish claims about where the migrant flights went. One TikToker said: 'ICE says they deport people safely, but why do they use expensive military cargo planes that don't always land? 'Why are shackled bodies washing up in Europe? Why are immigrants being taken to countries that aren't their own? And why are fake agents abducting immigrants? We need answers.' Shackled bodies 'washing up in Europe' Let's unpack these claims. The reference to shackled bodies washing up in Europe – Spain, specifically – are migrants from Algeria, authorities have said. Police in Majorca opened an investigation to identify the bodies, but say they were likely handcuffed and thrown in the ocean during a 'confrontation' onboard. Decomposition and lack of DNA evidence have made the identification process of these bodies more difficult, they say. Claims from TikTokers that these bodies could be the migrants they claim the US are 'throwing into the ocean' are not only likely false, but also implausible. Even if a body from the Gulf of Mexico were to wash all the way to Spain, by the time it reached there, if at all, it would have been completely decomposed, eaten by animals or, more likely, already at the bottom of the ocean. There haven't been reports of shackled bodies found on the shores of Mexico, America, or nearby islands in the Gulf. Eerie parallels to infamous 'Death Flights' There is no evidence to suggest the Trump administration is throwing deportees off planes into the sea. But it has happened before in other countries. Between 1976 and 1983, thousands of dissidents under Argentina's dictatorship disappeared. Many of them were murdered in 'Death Flights' – which are exactly what they sound like. Hundreds of flights took off between 1977 and 1978 alone. The military would round up dissidents and put them on flights over the ocean, often drugged, and throw them into the sea. check our news page.
Metro
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Metro
Is the US using planes for deportations to throw people into the ocean?
Since taking office again in January, Donald Trump's administration has deported thousands on flights to countries in Latin America. According to data from Witness at the Border, more than 600 deportation flights have taken off since Trump's order earlier this year. The sheer number of arrests in America and the increased aggressive tactics by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have sparked outrage among Americans and others. Immigration raids in Los Angeles last month caused intense backlash, causing the city to introduce a curfew and prompting Trump to deploy the National Guard. Trump was slammed for deporting many of these migrants without a fair trial, to which he replied: 'You can't have a trial for all of these people. 'Look, we are getting some very bad people, killers, murderers, drug dealers, really bad people, the mentally ill, the mentally insane, they emptied out insane asylums into our country, we're getting them out. 'And a judge can't say: 'No, you have to have a trial,'' Trump claimed. 'No, we are going to have a very dangerous country if we are not allowed to do what we are entitled to do.' As tensions continue to boil over, some TikTokers have begun making outlandish claims about where the migrant flights went. One TikToker said: 'ICE says they deport people safely, but why do they use expensive military cargo planes that don't always land? 'Why are shackled bodies washing up in Europe? Why are immigrants being taken to countries that aren't their own? And why are fake agents abducting immigrants? We need answers.' Let's unpack these claims. The reference to shackled bodies washing up in Europe – Spain, specifically – are migrants from Algeria, authorities have said. Police in Majorca opened an investigation to identify the bodies, but say they were likely handcuffed and thrown in the ocean during a 'confrontation' onboard. Decomposition and lack of DNA evidence have made the identification process of these bodies more difficult, they say. Claims from TikTokers that these bodies could be the migrants they claim the US are 'throwing into the ocean' are not only likely false, but also implausible. Even if a body from the Gulf of Mexico were to wash all the way to Spain, by the time it reached there, if at all, it would have been completely decomposed, eaten by animals or, more likely, already at the bottom of the ocean. There haven't been reports of shackled bodies found on the shores of Mexico, America, or nearby islands in the Gulf. Arrests by ICE have increased 25% since Trump took office. By the end of April, an estimated 139,000 migrants had been deported from the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security. There is no evidence to suggest the Trump administration is throwing deportees off planes into the sea. More Trending But it has happened before in other countries. Between 1976 and 1983, thousands of dissidents under Argentina's dictatorship disappeared. Many of them were murdered in 'Death Flights' – which are exactly what they sound like. Hundreds of flights took off between 1977 and 1978 alone. The military would round up dissidents and put them on flights over the ocean, often drugged, and throw them into the sea. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Three killed and 16 people injured after shooting outside Chicago nightclub MORE: Teen struck by lightning through her phone charger in freak accident MORE: Musk says 'credit is due' to Trump despite president's threat to deport him
Forbes
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
White House Struggles To Explain Deportation Figures—As Experts Dispute Numbers
Trump officials have provided a patchwork of incomplete data on the number of deportations since President Donald Trump's first day in office—creating uncertainty surrounding the signature Trump initiative. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which routinely releases deportation figures, has reported deporting fewer people than the Biden administration: 660 on average per day during Trump's first 100 days, compared to a daily average of 742 under Biden last year, leading to multiple news reports Trump isn't living up to his promise to sharply increase deportations. In recent weeks, the Department of Homeland Security has begun to release new deportation figures more than double the ICE data, explaining the larger number also includes deportations carried out by the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection, along with 'thousands' of people who have used the CBP One Home app to 'self-deport,' telling Forbes on Tuesday the administration deported 142,000 individuals during Trump's first 100 days in office. But the number of people crossing the southern border illegally and being apprehended by Customs and Border Protection is far lower than it was during the Biden administration—7,181 under Trump last month versus 137,473 under Biden in March 2024—and neither the White House, nor CBP, has publicly released the CBP deportation figures. An official for the Coast Guard, which helps intercept migrants from waters along the U.S. border, told Forbes it does not conduct deportations, so its figure is zero. Without a complete picture of the data, there's no way to compare deportations under Trump to previous years, leading some immigration experts to criticize the Trump administration for lack of transparency and speculate whether it's manipulating numbers. 'Although the administration might well be lying, I am more concerned that they are engaging in what we call 'number laundering' or secretly switching up their counting methods to make the numbers look higher than they normally would be,' Austin Kocher, an immigration data analyst and researcher at Syracuse University told Forbes, adding 'it's one thing to play politics with politics—it's another to play politics with the data.' Tom Cartwright, who monitors ICE deportation flights for Witness at the Border, told USA Today 'I just don't find these numbers plausible unless DHS is including some amorphous estimate for self-deportations.' Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said this week Mexico has received 39,000 deported migrants, including 33,000 Mexicans, since Trump took office, compared to 52,000 in February, March and April last year. Trump has set a goal to deport 1 million people during his first year in office, and has launched a high-profile immigration enforcement campaign to promote the initiative, often featuring DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Czar Tom Homan participating in filmed border enforcement activity. Trump, meanwhile, has passed numerous executive orders to tamp down on immigration. He shut the border to most asylum seekers within days of taking office, has attempted to eliminate birthright citizenship, invoked a wartime authority known as the Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport migrants, and wants to revoke federal funding for so-called sanctuary cities. Trump is seeking additional funding from Congress to arrest, detain and deport migrants and continue building a wall at the southern border. Homan Presses Undocumented Immigrants To Self-Deport, Threatening Prosecution (Politico) ICE Data Shows High Arrests, Lagging Deportation Effort (Wall Street Journal) White House touts nearly 140,000 deportations, but data says roughly half actually deported (USA Today) One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space. In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's Terms of Service. We've summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil. Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain: User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in: So, how can you be a power user? Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's Terms of Service.
CNN
03-03-2025
- Politics
- CNN
The pace of Trump's deportation flights is so far similar to Biden's
President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants residing in the United States, but so far, the pace of deportations has held steady compared to last year, according to a CNN analysis of deportation flight data. The data, provided by Thomas Cartwright of the advocacy group Witness at the Border, which tracks publicly available information on ICE flights, reveals that the number of deportation flights so far are similar to those under the Biden administration. Trump administration officials have put a spotlight on their immigration enforcement efforts, frequently sharing images of arrests as well as migrants boarding flights to be sent back to their home countries. The Trump administration has also continued to remove people across the US southern border to Mexico as part of its implementation of strict asylum restrictions, fueling the number of removals even though they don't occur on flights. A Homeland Security official told CNN that the number of flights was slightly higher, at 145 flights. The passenger count on each flight during the Biden and Trump administrations was not immediately available. The Trump administration's stated goals to detain and deport undocumented immigrants on a large scale have met the on-the-ground realities of limited personnel and resources. In an apparent workaround, the United States started using military aircraft to return recent border crossers back to their countries of origin only days into the Trump administration. The military flights supplemented the regular Immigration and Customs Enforcement flights, but at a greater cost. While there are slight changes in the countries receiving flights, the pace is relatively stable between 2024 and 2025. The majority of flights also continue to go to Latin America. Since Trump took office, the United States has struck new agreements with multiple countries to accept third-country migrants — and in the case of Venezuela, restarted deportation flights. According to the data, there are 14 countries that are new for this time period in 2025, compared with the same time last year, including Brazil, Panama, and India. The top three destinations for repatriation flights were Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador — in line with previous administrations. In early February, Guatemala pledged a 40% increase in deportation flights carrying Guatemalans and migrants of other nationalities from the United States, President Bernardo Arévalo announced during a press conference with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The data, however, shows a slight decrease so far in flights to Guatemala and Honduras, and an increase in flights to Ecuador and Colombia. The use of military aircraft for repatriation flights has sparked feuds between the US and other countries — most notably, with Colombia. In the early days of the Trump administration, a public spat between the US and Colombia almost resulted in a damaging trade war. The two countries later reached an agreement.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The pace of Trump's deportation flights is so far similar to Biden's
President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants residing in the United States, but so far, the pace of deportations has held steady compared to last year, according to a CNN analysis of deportation flight data. The data, provided by Thomas Cartwright of the advocacy group Witness at the Border, which tracks publicly available information on ICE flights, reveals that the number of deportation flights so far are similar to those under the Biden administration. Trump administration officials have put a spotlight on their immigration enforcement efforts, frequently sharing images of arrests as well as migrants boarding flights to be sent back to their home countries. The Trump administration has also continued to remove people across the US southern border to Mexico as part of its implementation of strict asylum restrictions, fueling the number of removals even though they don't occur on flights. A Homeland Security official told CNN that the number of flights was slightly higher, at 145 flights. The passenger count on each flight during the Biden and Trump administrations was not immediately available. The Trump administration's stated goals to detain and deport undocumented immigrants on a large scale have met the on-the-ground realities of limited personnel and resources. In an apparent workaround, the United States started using military aircraft to return recent border crossers back to their countries of origin only days into the Trump administration. The military flights supplemented the regular Immigration and Customs Enforcement flights, but at a greater cost. While there are slight changes in the countries receiving flights, the pace is relatively stable between 2024 and 2025. The majority of flights also continue to go to Latin America. Since Trump took office, the United States has struck new agreements with multiple countries to accept third-country migrants — and in the case of Venezuela, restarted deportation flights. According to the data, there are 14 countries that are new for this time period in 2025, compared with the same time last year, including Brazil, Panama, and India. The top three destinations for repatriation flights were Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador — in line with previous administrations. In early February, Guatemala pledged a 40% increase in deportation flights carrying Guatemalans and migrants of other nationalities from the United States, President Bernardo Arévalo announced during a press conference with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The data, however, shows a slight decrease so far in flights to Guatemala and Honduras, and an increase in flights to Ecuador and Colombia. The use of military aircraft for repatriation flights has sparked feuds between the US and other countries — most notably, with Colombia. In the early days of the Trump administration, a public spat between the US and Colombia almost resulted in a damaging trade war. The two countries later reached an agreement.
