A call to action for airline workers to stop ICE’s “deportation machine”

I need everyone in the airline industry to understand that the ghouls at the Department of Homeland Security who posted this do not have enough planes to carry out their deportation goals. Yet.

They do however have the money. NOW is the time to tell your airline: If you contract with ICE, I will refuse to fly. NOW is the time to tell your union: These flights are unsafe and inhumane, and a disaster is only a matter of time. If you are only an airline customer, NOW is the time to tell the airlines you fly: If you contract with ICE, I will boycott.

ICE wants to triple deportations now that the bill President Trump signed on July 4 gave it $75 billion in extra funding – making it the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the country. “ICE Air” already operates 12 large charter jets and a handful of business jets daily. In May and June they operated a record number of flights (1,083 and 1,187 respectively), blowing through a six-month, $279 million contract in only four months – which they just increased by $60 million for the next six weeks. Another five-year $62 million contract ends in September.

That means they and their preferred airline broker, CSI Aviation – run by anti-immigrant failed politician Allen Weh and his “fake elector” daughter – are about to issue a bunch of new contracts. They could already be talking to your airline.

THESE FLIGHTS ARE UNSAFE. 

• All migrant passengers on ICE Air flights are shackled wrists to ankles. Some distressed passengers put in restraint blankets and hoods. How are you going to evacuate them in 90 seconds when they are getting their seatbelts tangled in their chains and all they can do is shuffle? How can they reach up for their oxygen masks if the cabin loses pressure?
• Between 2014 and 2021, there were six emergency evacuations of ICE Air flights. The evacuation times of only two have been made public: Seven minutes and 2/12 minutes.
• ICE guards on these flights regularly refuse to comply with flight attendant safety commands. If they were any other passenger, even a US senator, you would throw them off the plane. But when complaints are made to the FAA, they defer to ICE. 
• Flight attendants are instructed not to look at or speak to migrant passengers. 
• Flight attendants are not allowed to provide food or water to migrant passengers.
• Migrant passengers have reported being verbally, physically and sexually abused by ICE guards on these flights. Flight attendants onboard have no power to stop them.
• A June 2017 flight filled with smoke upon landing. The pilot ignored flight attendant pleas to evacuate – because there is a total breakdown of Crew Resource Management when untrained ICE guards are in charge! Many onboard were hospitalized, but let’s be clear: Everyone onboard could have died from smoke inhalation, just like Saudia Flight 163, for which CRM was developed to prevent from happening again.
• In 2017, 92 migrant passengers were left shackled on a plane for 23 hours when the crew timed out. They were kicked, dragged and threatened by ICE guards, tied up in harnesses, and when the lavs filled up they soiled themselves. 
• ICE Air flights are full of distressed passengers, who we know are more likely to experience medical emergencies. Migrant passengers are also not allowed to bring medications with them – not even children with asthma. ICE nurses onboard are not trained in how or when to land the plane for medical emergencies the way our on-ground flight paramedic partners are. 
• In the last four months, ICE has increasingly flown migrant passengers to countries where they are being tortured – like Myanmar and El Salvador – and to countries where they could be tortured, including Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania, Rwanda and South Sudan. Most of these people have never even been to the country they are being flown to, and the Supreme Court just cleared the way for this deranged practice to increase.

WHICH AIRLINES MIGHT CONTRACT WITH ICE? 

In short, all of them are possible targets. Mainline crews should not assume they are immune from this. We are dealing with an unprecedented amount of money here. American, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest have all downgraded their financial outlooks this year, and Alaska, American, Delta and United have already allowed thousands of individual deportations on scheduled commercial flights. 

I think these carriers, because of their financial pressures, base locations and previous charter history, are particularly vulnerable (this is just my opinion!): Allegiant, Breeze, Envoy/American Eagle, JetBlue, Mesa/United Express, Spirit. 

I think all charter carriers are vulnerable.

These carriers currently contract with ICE and may be asked to expand their operations: ATS, Avelo, Eastern Air, Global X, Journey, Omni, World Atlantic. But they don't have enough planes to triple ICE flights.

WHAT YOU CAN DO 

Tell your airline NOW: If you contract with ICE Air, I will refuse to fly on safety grounds. It is unlikely they will punish you for refusing a command they haven’t yet made. 

If you have a union, tell your union to tell your airline not to contract with ICE. The safety issues on these flights may violate your union contracts, find out how NOW. 

Tell the FAA, and tell your union to tell the FAA: The safety issues on these flights that have been allowed to go on for years are unacceptable, and these flights need to be grounded NOW. Will they listen to you? Probably not. Say it anyway.

Help pilots and flight attendants for the airlines already doing ICE flights find jobs somewhere else. If there’s not enough crew, the planes can’t go. 

In 2019, flight attendants ended the longest government shutdown in history when they threatened to strike over safety issues the shutdown had caused. It is time again for you to be the last bulwark against this administration's dangerous and inhumane actions.

DHS is already bragging about “firing up their deportation machine.” But this is not inevitable. They can’t do it without pilots and flight attendants. Refuse to take part. 

Gillian Brockell was a flight attendant from 2005 to 2010.