Jason Owens, Chief of U.S. Border Patrol (USBP), announced the commencement of removal flights on December 7th. Removal flights are conducted to remove unlawful residents from the country and return them to their home countries.
Owens underscored the importance of these operations, stating, "Removal flights are a vital component in delivering a consequence to those who break our laws. Today, four flights are on the agenda to include three to Guatemala and the first such flight to Colombia since the cessation of T42. We need these to continue, and we need more of them."
In November, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed in a press release that they were collaborating with Customs and Border Protection (CPB) and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to conduct removal flights for families and single adults to Central America, Ecuador, India, Peru, and Venezuela. This initiative aligns with numerous other removal flights led by ICE to expel individuals from the country. The DHS has removed or returned over 380,000 individuals to their respective countries since May 2023, including more than 60,000 "individual family unit members."
The DHS media release clarified that migrants unable to prove their legal right to stay in the U.S will face deportation. While migrants have the option to file a legal claim for remaining in the country, without it they will be removed as per standard practice. This policy applies uniformly to all undocumented migrants regardless of their origin as part of efforts "to ensure the orderly and humane processing, transfer, and removal of single adults and family units."
Undocumented migrants entering removal proceedings can present evidence supporting an asylum claim before an immigration judge rules on their case in immigration courts. The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review supervises this process. For operational security reasons, ICE does not approve or scrutinize future or ongoing transportation operations.
