As the Trump administration ramps up deportation flights to record highs, airlines operating these flights are taking measures to obscure flight data from flight tracking websites, according to a report from the Associated Press.
Per the report, some carriers contracting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation flights are now using dummy call signs and blocking tail numbers in order to limit tracking by immigration advocacy groups and other parties that monitor such flights.
Immigration advocate Tom Cartwright has been tracking deportation flights since 2020 and reported that since the beginning of Trump’s second term through July, at least 5,962 deportation flights have taken place, a 41 percent increase over the same period in 2024. Around 80 percent of these flights are carried out by three airlines, GlobalX, Eastern Air Express, and Avelo Airlines.
Because of the Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed (LADD) program, the FAA allows aircraft owners to limit the flight data administered to publicly-accessible flight tracking websites, blocking info such as tail numbers.
The agency states, “The LADD program provides aircraft owners the ability to have their flight data filtered from distribution via the FAA System Wide Information Management (SWIM) data feed or filtered from public display by web sites that participate in the program.”
Popular flight tracking site FlightRadar24 said in March that it received LADD requests for more than a dozen aircraft, many of which were being used to carry out deportations. Seattle-area nonprofit immigration rights group La Resistencia stated that 40 of the 94 aircraft it was tracking nationwide have been blocked.
Airlines are also using call signs different from their traditional lettering in a further effort to shield these flights from increased attention.
This news comes after a report last week that claimed the Trump administration is looking into having ICE purchase its own fleet of aircraft for deportations.
Head em up, move em out. Keep those planes a rolling.
Why do they hide? Because they are ashamed. Want to end illegal immigration? Arrest those who hire them. But that would mean arresting white Americans so we choose instead to round up poor, desperate brown people and send them to “sh*thole countries.” It’s shameful which is why the secret police wear masks when they do it and the airlines hide their identity.
THIS is why they want to mask their flights. Because idiots like this want to blame THEM, instead of those who caused the problem.
But this is typical of criminal advocates… Let’s just ignore the actual criminals and attack those doing the right thing.
Yes, those who employ them SHOULD be arrested. No matter what color they are. (More false accusations of racism.)
But the illegals are criminals, and they need to be deported. Those doing the work of cleaning up the mess caused by these invaders shouldn’t be targeted or harassed.
The responsibility remains with those who illegally crossed the border. Stop that, as the new administration has largely done, and then we clean up the mess.
Those people need to go home, and come back legally if they self-deport. If not, then they need to be sent home, or wherever someone will accept them, and banned from ever coming back.
Don’t want to be deported to a shithole country? Don’t break into ours. Or self-deport now. Then you can go anywhere you like.
Run but you can’t hide. ADSBExchange.com which now has a paywall to access all its content relies on private adsb receivers who citizens who like to look up and know who is flying above the. can find out in real time. Most of these keen folks decide to feed adsbexchange database via the internet.
That means the government does not own the data and can’t control it.
You may recall that a young university student in Florida
pissed off Elon Musk back in early 2022 because his aircraft were being tracked on ADSBexchange and that info was being shared with the public.
The number of private ground based adsb receivers has increased worldwide and if a ADSB transponder is switched on, the private network is on guard 7/24/365.
While the governments of democratic republics and democracies overstep freedom of information and freedom of speech red lines, there are always those who fight back. adsbexchange is an example.
Looks like the airlines are ashamed of the work they are doing but not too ashamed to take the money…
Like growing and harvesting our food? Taking care of livestock? Cleaning hotel rooms? Building roads and houses? Watching our kids?
The horror…
The same idea as railroads running boxcars full of people to the camps because there’s good money to be made.
Don’t be a fool. People harvested our food and crops before this.
Skip the drama queen routine. It’s worn thin.
People can come legally for any job you want to cite. And they’ll fill the bill for you modern-day slavers.
I’d rather have them here than people whose first act in our country is breaking the law.
And yes, it IS a crime. So don’t even start with that one.