Data shows major drop in number of ICE detainees being transferred out of state
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The number of ICE detainees flown out of state has dropped significantly since border czar Tom Homan announced a major drawdown of federal agents from Minnesota last Thursday — an indication that federal enforcement activity could be easing.
After peaking at 246 people boarding planes at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in a single day in early January, totals have been steadily declining with a rapid drop off in February. That’s according to Nick Benson, who along with his team, has been stationed at MSP daily, counting the number of people in shackles who board government flights. He shared his data with MPR News.
On Feb. 13, the day after Homan’s announcement, Benson said there wasn’t a single ICE chartered flight out of MSP for the first time since Jan. 4.
“I'm also, as many other people are, deeply skeptical of anything the federal government is telling us right now,” said Benson. “But it does appear that we have a promising trend that has developed here in the last week or so.”
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Benson is an activist with MN50501 and works in commercial flight data analytics. He said more than 3,600 people have been flown out of the state on these flights since early November when he began documenting. Homan said federal agents have made more than 4,000 arrests during the operation.
“All of the traffic we have here are domestic transfer or domestic shuffle flights moving people from their homes here in Minnesota to detention centers elsewhere,” Benson said.
Although he’s hopeful of the trend he’s seeing, he said his work is not over.
“I don't know what the end of this project looks like for me,” Benson said. “Yet, we are certainly not there right now.”
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