Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reportedly strapped down immigrants with physical restraints during a gruelling 51-hour deportation flight that made stops in six countries last month. This journey is among the longest-ever under President Donald Trump's administration, occurring during a record-breaking month for removals.
Record Number of Deportation Flights in April
According to a report from Human Rights Watch released on Thursday, ICE performed at least 245 removal flights in April, setting a monthly record since independent monitors began tracking the planes in 2020. The surge was largely driven by a spike in deportation flights to Mexico, which accounted for at least 68 flights last month. However, the administration also accelerated so-called third-country removals, where immigrants are forcibly transferred to nations where they have no citizenship claims, family ties, or legal protections.
The number of third-country removal flights more than doubled from March to April, with first-time flights to at least nine countries. Savi Arvey, director of research and analysis for Refugee and Immigrant Rights at Human Rights First, stated, "These ICE flights represent a system operating in darkness. People are disappearing, deported to countries where they face persecution, or sent to places they've never lived — all without transparency or due process."
Details of the 51-Hour Flight
One ICE Air flight to Poland and Moldova on an Omni charter plane also dropped individuals in Armenia, Georgia, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. The journey lasted 51 hours, during which deportees were physically restrained throughout the flight, including at layovers and fuel stops. Deportees on ICE flights are frequently restrained with handcuffs, waist chains, and leg irons. The agency has also used a full-body restraint suit, which has been linked to at least a dozen deaths involving local law enforcement over the past decade.
The Independent has requested comment from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. It remains unclear how many people were deported on ICE Air flights last month, as the agency has not provided monthly totals for removals. However, deportees were sent to at least 38 countries. The 245 flights marked a 94 percent increase from April 2025.
Increase in Flights to Mexico and Third Countries
Removal flights to far-flung cities in Mexico began to ramp up by mid-April, averaging 23 flights per week, a 113 percent increase from the same period last year. This spike follows a decision to freeze deportations of Mexican nationals by land, apparently to make it more difficult for them to return to the U.S.-Mexico border. The administration's increasing reliance on third-country agreements has become a critical tool in the president's mass deportation campaign.
More than 17,500 immigrants have been deported to at least 21 third countries since Trump took office, according to recent reporting from Human Rights First and Refugees International. They often end up in hotels, shelters, or prisons, while cash-strapped foreign governments—including those with human rights abuses—receive millions of dollars through secret agreements. Critics call this a legally dubious outsourcing of immigration enforcement.
The administration has pledged at least $44 million to more than 30 countries that have agreed to take deportees from the U.S., the report found. Uzra Zeya, president of Human Rights First and former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, described it as "a cruel and lawless foreign policy that treats human lives as bargaining chips." Critics warn that the policy exposes deportees to arbitrary and indefinite detention, including refoulement, where foreign governments deport people back to the conditions they fled.
Zeya added, "The more than 30 countries pressured into these deals are not merely complicit — they are active partners in violating international law and eroding the norms that uphold it."
