Three craven ICE flights
An apparent ICE flight to Myanmar, a third-country removal to Uganda, and another African country joins the list of collaborator “hosts.”
I was on a family vacation last week and so didn’t publish any ICE flight news. But three things happened while I was gone that I don’t want to go unrecognized, because they demonstrate the Trump administration’s continued and ever more craven abuse of our immigrant neighbors. Please forgive me for simply listing them here instead of fully reporting them out; I’ll have more complete news to report soon.
1. An apparent ICE flight to Myanmar
On March 29, an Gulfstream V operated by Journey Aviation left the ICE Air Operations headquarters of Mesa, AZ, made a likely fuel and crew stop at Sapporo New Chitose Airport in Japan, and then continued on to Myanmar. This was in all likelihood an ICE deportation flight.
This was probably not Trump 2.0’s first deportation to Myanmar, though it is the first I have been able to identify by flight data. As my friend and fellow journalist James Stout reported last May, ICE sent at least 20 Burmese nationals back into the clutches of the military junta in the spring of 2025. These people were immediately sent to a notorious torture facility; only seven had been released by late May, according to Stout’s Burmese sources. People who have survived this facility describe witnessing the most horrific abuses, including detainees being forced to drink acid and being slowly roasted alive.
A grassroots coalition has been attempting to overthrow the regime since 2021, and most of the deportees came from the minority ethnic groups that “have been cornerstones of the revolution,” Stout wrote. Plus, “the junta has a long history of punishing people for encountering freedom in any way.”
After Myanmar, the aircraft also made likely deportation stops in Thailand and Australia, according to flight data. If there are any updates on the passengers of this aircraft, I will let you know.
2. The first known third-country removal to Uganda
On April 1, another Gulfstream V operated by Journey left the ICE detention hub of Alexandria, LA, stopped for fuel in Dakar, Senegal, and then flew to Kampala, Uganda, arriving at 11:20 a.m. local time, according to public flight data. Reuters reported 12 third-country nationals were onboard, according to a Ugandan rights group. The government of Uganda later released a statement saying it had accepted eight third-country nationals – seven men and one woman, all from other African countries. The reason for the discrepancy is unclear.
Uganda signed a third-country removal agreement with the United States last July, but this is the first known transfer of migrants under the agreement.
Though Journey has done many ICE charters (by my count, the trip to Uganda was at least the 31st since last May), this was the first trip using this particular aircraft (N62FF). Like most charter carriers, Journey doesn’t own most of the planes in its fleet, instead leasing them from wealthy people looking for a Trump tax break. The owner of this plane is unclear, but it is registered to a shell company called Psalm 52:8 LLC.
Psalm 52:8 reads: “But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever.”
3. Congo signs third-country removal agreement
The third craven ICE flight I want to highlight hasn’t happened yet but is expected to take place this month. On April 5, the Associated Press reported the Democratic Republic of Congo had signed an agreement to accept third-country nationals – migrants with no ties to Congo – from the United States.
Despite President Trump’s claims of having ended the war in between Congo and Rwanda, the two countries have been fighting since 2022. It is a violation of both US and international law to deport someone to an active warzone, and the Trump administrations continued bastardization of the once rare Safe Third Country program is pretty well obvious here. Congo cannot provide safe resettlement for any migrant, because Congo is not safe.
Of the eight African countries that are known to have accepted third-country nationals so far, only one – Ghana – is a functioning democracy that could be reasonably considered safe, but all of the known third-country migrants sent to Ghana have been returned to their unsafe countries of origin or expelled to Togo.
Interestingly, the announcement about Congo accidentally answered a question I’d had for a month. On March 3, Journey did a likely ICE flight that landed in both the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to flight data, and I’ve been wondering if this aircraft held “regular” deportees or third-country nationals. With the announcement that an agreement has just been made, it appears the answer is the former.
You can find out more about the thousands of people subjected to inhumane third-country removals under Trump 2.0 – and the ICE collaborator airlines carrying them out – in my Third-Country Removal Tracker.
Thank you for reading. I am a former Washington Post staff writer and, as far as I know, the only journalist in America covering ICE flights full time. I am committed to keeping this reporting non-paywalled, but if you are able, please sign up for a paid subscription or send me a one-time tip, so I can continue to focus on this important work. –Gillian
