ICE quietly launched detainee flights out of Indianapolis airport

Last Friday morning, more than 80 flights departed from the Indianapolis International Airport. But one, boarding around 11:30 a.m., was unlike the others.

The passengers were in handcuffs. They stood on the tarmac, next to three vans and a coach-style bus. Dozens were soon loaded onto an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flight.

Who the detainees are, or where they are from, is unclear. But they were bound for Alexandria, Louisiana — the Trump administration’s major deportation hub, where immigration lawyers warn due process rights disappear.

The Oct. 24 departure was one of more than four dozen ICE flights that moved through the Indianapolis airport, records show, since early July. In an email, the Indianapolis Airport Authority said ICE is using the runways three times a week. But if you’re flying out, you probably won’t see them.

Detainees on charter flights depart from a private facility tucked away on the north side of the airport, separate from the main buildings. It’s the same area where politicians and professional sports teams fly in and out.

ICE did not answer questions about the flights or respond to requests for comment.

But Mirror Indy witnessed men with badges, including one wearing a black jacket that said “POLICE ICE,” shuffle groups of people with bound wrists onto an Eastern Air Express flight. The airline, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, is one of three working with the federal government to rapidly transport people between detention centers and out of the country.

The scale of this federal operation is unprecedented, said Savi Arvey, an immigration researcher. She heads the ICE Flight Monitor team, a nationwide project run by a human rights group tracking the planes in real-time. Last month, as the number of ICE flights hit a record high across the country, Indianapolis caught their attention for the first time.

“It’s a new ICE Air destination,” Arvey said.

Angela Joseph, an Indianapolis immigration attorney, is used to her clients being moved around the Midwest. But this year, some started popping up in detention centers in Louisiana.

“I didn’t know about the ICE flights,” Joseph told Mirror Indy. “But nothing this administration does surprises me anymore.”

She is among advocates who say the Trump administration is moving immigrants around to isolate them from family and from lawyers trying to defend them. Immigration is generally a civil matter, and non-citizens have constitutional rights to hire legal counsel in deportation cases and receive a fair hearing before a judge. According to federal data from September, people with no criminal record now make up the largest group in ICE detention.

“There’s no meaningful due process,” Joseph said. “Before you can do anything legally, they’re on a plane and back in their home country.”

Local flight data reviewed by Mirror Indy shows planes arriving here from Youngstown, Ohio, and departing for Alexandria, Louisiana. Alexandria is the Trump administration’s major deportation hub, where immigration lawyers warn due process rights disappear.

At first, according to ICE Flight Monitor, a different airline was taking detainees from the Indy airport: Global X, which was flying regularly to another deportation hub in Harlingen, Texas. By Oct. 8, Eastern Air Express had taken over with weekly flights to Alexandria, Louisiana.

Both airlines did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Neither did Million Air, a fixed-base operator at the Indianapolis airport. The luxury company based in Houston services private planes at locations across the country with fuel, maintenance and ground support. It took care of celebrities and athletes flying in for the Indy 500 and NBA All-Star Weekend.

On Oct. 24, two Mirror Indy journalists observed an Eastern Air Express flight taxiing to Million Air’s facility off of Pierson Drive. They watched from the parking lot as workers set up stairs for boarding and began servicing the Boeing 737.

Before any people boarded, a Million Air employee told Mirror Indy’s reporter and photojournalist to leave.

“So these are ICE flights with detainees?” the reporter asked.

“This is private property,” the employee replied.

Mirror Indy then went to a public road and shot pictures of the flight from about 900 yards away. Photos show detainees lined up, waiting to board. They wore regular clothes — a requirement listed in the 2024 ICE Air Operations Handbook. The manual outlines how detainees must be fully restrained on the planes with handcuffs, shackles and leg irons.

“If the flight goes down, is someone going to unshackle them?” Joseph, the immigration attorney, asked.

The Indianapolis Airport Authority said the federal government does not have to tell them about the ICE flights, including their duration or frequency.

The airport was informed about ICE’s activities in September, a spokesperson said. ICE Flight Monitor tracked the federal agency using the airways in Indianapolis as early as July, though records show flights ramped up in September.

“The Indianapolis International Airport is a federally regulated public use facility,” an airport spokesperson said in an Oct. 22 statement to Mirror Indy. “The IAA must comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations and cannot interfere with or restrict federal and civil aviation activities.”

That answer was not satisfying to advocates.

“I don’t think most Indy residents want an airport we really love to be part of a deportation machine,” said Josh Riddick, an organizer with Live Free Indiana. “We have to figure out who is passively sitting by while ICE expands its footprint in our city.”

The group has repeatedly protested the Marion County Sheriff’s Office for working with ICE this year to hold detainees in the local jail. From January through mid-October, records show nearly 800 people have been housed there at some point. The sheriff’s office does not transport detainees to the airport for ICE flights, a spokesperson said.

Two weeks ago, Riddick visited with immigrants inside Indy’s jail. Some, he said, were so defeated they agreed to voluntary departure. Others wanted to fight their cases.

That’s much harder, advocates say, once someone has been moved out of state in a few short hours. Deportation flights were common under the Bush, Obama and Biden administrations. But the scale has grown immensely under Trump 2.0, which is also transferring more people between states.

“These planes are going to Louisiana for a reason,” Riddick told Mirror Indy. “That’s a location where the government wins in court and expedites deportations. Our neighbors and friends are being put in a black box so the Trump administration can force a victory.”

Other communities across the country are reckoning with their airports becoming a pit-stop in the deportation process.

In Seattle, advocates are monitoring ICE flights with live video feeds and pressing the private airlines and companies involved to stop working with federal agents. In Massachusetts, ICE initially stopped flights at Hanscom Field after public outcry, but resumed them in September. And in New Hampshire, community members are demanding answers from the Pease County Development Authority — though officials there say the airport will lose all federal grants if it defies ICE.

“Ultimately, if all airports took a stand, ICE couldn’t operate,” said Megan Chapman, a human rights lawyer working to stop the flights at Portsmouth International Airport. “If there is enough resistance in enough places to slow things down, that allows more people to actually have their day in court.”

Indianapolis may be the next chapter in the fight.

“The airport has some control over who does business on their property and which companies they allow,” said Riddick, the organizer with Live Free Indiana. “Somebody is aware of this and they’ve been quiet about it.”

Joseph, the local immigration attorney, has her eyes set on the private companies involved in the Indianapolis flights: Eastern Air Express, Global X and Million Air.

To her, the answer is simple.

“We won’t support businesses that are helping tear families apart,” she said.

Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations. Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at 317-721-7648 or email maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7.