SEATTLE (AP) — Immigration supporters assemble regularly outside Seattle’s King County International Airport towitness deportation flightsand share information about their destination and the number of passengers. Up until now, they were able to monitor the flights through publicly available websites.
However, monitors and others indicate that airlines are currently using fake call signs for deportation flights and are preventing the planes’ tail numbers from being tracked on websites, despite the record-high number of deportation flights.under President Donald TrumpThe modifications compelled them to seek alternative methods for monitoring the flights, such as exchanging details with additional groups and utilizing data from an open-source platform that records aircraft signals.
Their efforts assist individuals in finding family members who have been deported when there is no information provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which seldom releases flight details. News outlets have utilized this type of flight tracking in their reporting.
Tom Cartwright, a former J.P. Morgan financial executive who has now retiredimmigration advocate, monitored 1,214 flights related to deportations in July — the highest number since he began tracking in January 2020. Approximately 80% are managed by three airlines: GlobalX, Eastern Air Express andAvelo AirlinesThey transport immigrants to different airports for connections to international flights or escort them across the border, primarily to Central American nations and Mexico.
Cartwright monitored 5,962 flights from thebeginning of Trump’s second termBy July, there was a 41% rise compared to 1,721 during the same time in 2024. These numbers incorporate data from major deportation airports but exclude smaller ones such as King County International Airport, also referred to as Boeing Field. Cartwright’s data shows 68 military deportation flights since January—18 of those occurred in July alone. The majority have been directed to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The work grew so intense that Cartwright, 71, and his group, Witness at the Border, handed over the task this month to Human Rights First, which named its initiative “ICE Flight Monitor.”
“His efforts provide crucial transparency regarding U.S. government actions that affect thousands of people, and serve as a strong example of citizen-led accountability in support of human rights and democracy,” said Uzrz Zeya, CEO of Human Rights First.
The airlines did not reply to several email inquiries for a statement. ICE is a division of the Department of Homeland Security, which has not verified any security protocols it has implemented.
The organization La Resistencia, based in the Seattle area and focused on immigration rights, has been tracking 59 flights at Boeing Field and five at Yakima airport in 2025, exceeding its 2024 count of 42.
Not every flight involves deportation. Some are for individuals traveling to or from immigration detention facilities or to airports close to the border. La Resistencia documented 1,023 immigrants arriving to be sent to the ICE detention center in Tacoma, Washington, and 2,279 who were flown out, typically to states along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“ICE is making every effort to ensure it’s as challenging as possible to distinguish their contractors’ government work from other business activities,” organizer Guadalupe Gonzalez said to The Associated Press.
Airlines are permitted to restrict data access
The Federal Aviation Administration permits airlines to restrict access to information such as tail numbers on public flight tracking websites under theLimiting Aircraft Data Displayedprogram, or LADD, noted Ian Petchenik, a representative from FlightRadar24.
“Tail numbers are similar to VIN numbers on vehicles,” Gonzalez stated.
Aircraft with obscured tail numbers no longer show up on sites such as FlightRadar24 or FlightAware. The tracking page marks them as “N/A – Not Available” as they travel across the map and when they are on the ground. Destinations and estimated arrival times are not displayed.
Carriers have occasionally utilized LADD for purposes such as presidential campaigns, but in March, FlightRadar24 received LADD alerts for over a dozen aircraft, according to Petchenik. It was uncommon to observe so many planes from various airlines added to the restricted list, he noted. The restricted aircraft were frequently employed for ICE deportations and transfers, he added.
Out of the 94 ICE Air contractor planes that La Resistencia was monitoring across the country, 40 have gone missing from the records, according to Gonzalez.
Gonzalez mentioned that similar situations occurred with the call signs that airlines use to track flights in the air.
Airlines employ a mix of letters and numbers in their company names to distinguish their aircraft. For instance, GlobalX uses GXA. However, over the past few months, ICE carriers have altered their standard call signs, complicating the identification of their immigration operations, he mentioned.
Cameras located at Boeing Field assist volunteers in monitoring aircraft movements.
King County International Airport is among the limited locations in the nation where observers can witness passengers disembarking and boarding aircraft, due to cameras managed by the county. Volunteers assemble every time a flight lands to tally each individual and record if they have difficulty climbing the stairs or show signs of medical concerns.
ICE Air operations at Boeing Field began in 2011. The county establishedcameras on the tarmacIn 2023, following King County Executive Dow Constantine’s unsuccessful efforts to halt the ICE flights, he issued an order mandating the county to monitor them at the airport. The county publishesmonthly statistics on them.
The cameras capture immigrants arriving by bus, undergoing inspections, and ascending the stairs onto the aircraft. On Tuesday, a man who was bent over walked down the bus stairs and across the tarmac with a cane, after which an officer assisted him in boarding the plane, step by step.
Prisoners have to move up the plane’s stairs with their ankles linked together. Their hands are also shackled, and these restraints are attached to a chain around their waist, preventing them from lifting their arms, gripping the rail, or taking large steps, according to activist Stan Shikuma of the AP.
The footage can be watched in real time on a large screen located in a nearby structure, allowing supporters to observe individuals being removed from buses at the ICE Northwest detention facility. It is alsobroadcasted via the county’s website.
They are searched from head to toe, their mouths checked, and sometimes the chains are made tighter before they are permitted to board the plane,” Shikuma stated. “Individuals arriving from the plane face the same process.
