Governor Healey Demands Private Airlines Stop Providing Deportation Flights to ICE at Expense of Taxpayers

Governor Healey Demands Private Airlines Stop Providing Deportation Flights to ICE at Expense of Taxpayers  

BOSTON – Today, Governor Maura Healey is demanding that two private airline companies stop providing flights for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to quickly remove residents who have been detained, a significant majority of whom have no criminal convictions or charges. This comes after Governor Healey demanded that ICE stop these flights out of Hanscom Field airport, asserting that they are intended to sever Massachusetts residents from their family, friends and legal counsel and obstruct their access to due process. 

In her letter to the top executives of GlobalX Airlines and Eastern Air Express, Governor Healey also raised concerns about how much the Trump Administration’s use of private jets for ICE activity is costing the taxpayers, while private airlines are raking in huge profits. Avelo Airlines, which previously was chartering flights for ICE in Massachusetts, recently announced that they have cut ties. 

Governor Healey wrote in part: 

“On behalf of American taxpayers, I also find it incomprehensible that the Trump Administration is choosing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on private jets to obstruct people’s due process at a time when they are denying hunger benefits, cutting health care access, and raising costs on everyone through costly tariffs. Flying these residents out of state—often within hours of arrest—is intentionally cruel and purposely obstructs the due process and legal representation they are entitled to. By contracting with ICE to execute these flights, you are profiting off these anti-American tactics and facilitating the obstruction of due process.” 

The full letter can be read here.