US deportation flights hit record highs as carriers try to hide the planes, advocates say

SEATTLE (AP) — Immigration advocates gather like clockwork outside Seattle's King County International Airport to witness deportation flights and spread word of where they are going and how many people are aboard. Until recently, they could keep track of the flights using publicly accessible websites.

But the monitors and others say airlines are now using dummy call signs for deportation flights and are blocking the planes' tail numbers from tracking websites, even as the number of deportation flights hits record highs under President Donald Trump. The changes forced them to find other ways to follow the flights, including by sharing information with other groups and using data from an open-source exchange that tracks aircraft transmissions.

Their work helps people locate loved ones who are deported in the absence of information from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which rarely discloses flights. News organizations have used such flight tracking in reporting.

Tom Cartwright, a retired J.P. Morgan financial officer turned immigration advocate, tracked 1,214 deportation-related flights in July — the highest level since he started watching in January 2020. About 80% are operated by three airlines: GlobalX, Eastern Air Express and Avelo Airlines. They carry immigrants to other airports to be transferred to overseas flights or take them across the border, mostly to Central American countries and Mexico.

Cartwright tracked 5,962 flights from the start of Trump's second term through July, a 41% increase from 1,721 over the same period in 2024. Those figures including information from major deportation airports but not smaller ones like King County International Airport, also known as Boeing Field. Cartwright's figures include 68 military deportation flights since January — 18 in July alone. Most have gone to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The work became so demanding that Cartwright, 71, and his group, Witness at the Border, turned over the job this month to Human Rights First, which dubbed its project "ICE Flight Monitor."

“His work brings essential transparency to U.S. government actions impacting thousands of lives and stands as a powerful example of citizen-driven accountability in defense of human rights and democracy," Uzrz Zeya, Human Rights First's chief executive officer, said.

The airlines did not respond to multiple email requests for comment. ICE is part of the Department of Homeland Security, which would not confirm any security measures it has taken.

La Resistencia, a Seattle-area nonprofit immigration rights group, has monitored 59 flights at Boeing Field and five at the Yakima airport in 2025, surpassing its 2024 total of 42.

Not all are deportation flights. Many are headed to or from immigration detention centers or to airports near the border. La Resistencia counted 1,023 immigrants brought in to go to the ICE detention center in Tacoma, Washington, and 2,279 flown out, often to states on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“ICE is doing everything in its power to make it as hard as possible to differentiate their contractors’ government activities from other commercial endeavors,” organizer Guadalupe Gonzalez told The Associated Press.

The Federal Aviation Administration allows carriers to block data like tail numbers from public flight tracking websites under the Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed program, or LADD, said Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for FlightRadar24.

“Tail numbers are like VIN numbers on cars,” Gonzalez said.

Planes with blocked tail numbers no longer appear on websites like FlightRadar24 or FlightAware. The tracker page identifies these them as “N/A - Not Available" as they move across the map and when they are on the tarmac. Destinations and arrival times aren't listed.

Carriers have occasionally used LADD for things like presidential campaigns, but in March, FlightRadar24 received LADD notices for more than a dozen aircraft, Petchenik said. It was unusual to see that many aircraft across multiple airlines added to the blocking list, he said. The blocked planes were often used for ICE deportations and transfers, he said.

Of the 94 ICE Air contractor planes that La Resistencia was tracking nationwide, 40 have been unlisted, Gonzalez said.

Similar things happened with the call signs airlines use to identify flights in the air, Gonzalez said.

Airlines use a combination of letters in their company name and numbers to identify their planes. GlobalX uses GXA, for example. But in the past few months, the ICE carriers have changed their regular call signs, making it more difficult to locate their immigration activates, he said.

King County International Airport is one of the few sites in the country where passengers can be seen getting off and on the planes, thanks to county-operated cameras. Volunteers gather each time a flight arrives to count each person and note whether they struggle on the stairs or appear to have health issues.

ICE Air operations at Boeing Field started in 2011. The county set up cameras on the tarmac in 2023 after King County Executive Dow Constantine, having unsuccessfully tried to stop the ICE flights, issued an order requiring the county to track them at the airport. The county publishes monthly statistics on them.

The cameras record immigrants arriving on buses, being searched and being led up the stairs onto the planes. On Tuesday, one man who was hunched over shuffled down the bus' stairs and across the tarmac using a cane, then an officer helped him climb onto the plane, one step at a time.

Detainees must navigate the plane’s stairway with their ankles chained together. Their wrists are also chained, and those cuffs are connected to a chain around their waist, so they can’t raise their arms, hold the railing or take big steps, activist Stan Shikuma told the AP.

The video can be viewed live on a giant screen in a nearby building where advocates can watch people being taken off buses from the ICE Northwest detention center. It's also livestreamed on the county website.

“They’re patted down, head to toe, mouth examined, sometimes the chains are tightened before they’re allowed to board the plane," Shikuma said. "People coming off the plane: same treatment.”

Parked aircrafts are seen on the tarmac as protesters hold a news conference outside of Boeing Field airport in King County, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Protesters from the La Resistencia immigrant rights organization speak during a news conference outside of Boeing Field airport in King County, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flight operates out of King County International Airport-Boeing Field, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

A detainee boards a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flight departing from King County International Airport-Boeing Field, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Immigrant rights advocates monitor a webcam available to the public showing a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flight departing from King County International Airport-Boeing Field, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday on some charges related to his imposition of martial law.

The verdict is the first against Yoon in the eight criminal trials over the decree he issued in late 2024 and other allegations.

The most significant charge against him alleges that he led a rebellion in connection with his martial law enforcement and it carries a potential death penalty.

The Seoul Central District Court in the case decided Friday sentenced him for other charges like his defiance of authorities’ attempts to detain him.

Yoon hasn’t immediately publicly responded to the ruling. But when an independent counsel earlier demanded a 10-year prison term for Yoon over those charges, Yoon’s defense team accused them of being politically driven and lacking legal grounds to demand such “an excessive” sentence.

Yoon has been impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster.

Yoon maintains he didn’t intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament which obstructed his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoon’s decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule, charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses.

A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol waits for a bus carrying former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs as police officers stand guard outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A picture of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is placed on a board as supporters gather outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)