Since January, the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office has shuttled hundreds of ICE detainees to Hanscom Field, where they’re flown to states around the country that have large detention centers, WBUR revealed Tuesday.
The immigration agency has flown more than 40 flights through Hanscom, data from Tom Cartwright, a former financial executive turned immigration advocate who’s become a leading authority on the air transfers, shows.
Members of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission, a liaison group between Massport, the agency that oversees Hanscom, and the towns surrounding Hanscom Field, condemned ICE during its meeting Tuesday night.
“There is an old saying that if you shouldn’t do something in private, you shouldn’t do it in public,” Christopher Eliot, a Lincoln resident and member of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission, or HFAC, said during the group’s meeting. “There is something about ICE activities…something deep in their black hearts that they know what they’re doing is wrong.”
Plymouth’s jail has contracts with ICE dating back to 2009. It’s now the only state facility with a contract to hold ICE detainees, with 526 beds that are in high demand from immigration officials.
Massachusetts law enforcement is generally barred from arresting people solely based on immigration status, under a 2017 ruling by the state’s high court. Local law enforcement can assist ICE in cases when there is a criminal warrant, and sheriff’s offices can enter contracts, as Plymouth has, to hold and transport detainees in ICE custody.
Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald told WBUR his deputies are not involved in ICE arrests or arranging the flights. His office has, however, taken 545 ICE detainees to the Hanscom airport since President Trump took office, from Jan. 20 through May, according to data WBUR obtained in a public records request.
McDonald does not know where detainees are ultimately taken after being dropped off at Hanscom, he told WBUR. The government has repeatedly flown detainees to large ICE detention centers in southern states, including Louisiana and Texas, to await deportation hearings.
The sheriff’s office said its records do not include information about any additional transports.
Massport likewise does not have data on ICE flights, spokeswoman Jennifer Mehigan told WBUR. She said the government doesn’t notify the airport about the flights; it mainly uses charter planes owned by a variety of private companies.
“Nobody is required to ask our permission to use our public use airports,” Amber Goodspeed, manager of airport administration for Massport, said during HFAC’s meeting Tuesday. “They don’t inform us they’re coming so we don’t have any info on any of these flights and it’s pretty typical to not know who is on any of the aircrafts.”
Eliot and fellow HFAC members Barbara Katzenberg and Margaret Coppe, both of Lexington, said they did not believe it is their commission’s duty to broach this issue. They noted they do not blame Massport, either.
“I’m really outraged about what ICE is doing but I don’t really feel Massport is responsible for it,” Eliot said. “ICE is reprehensible in what they’re doing.”
The HFAC members felt the need to talk about this topic during their meeting to spread the word. They shared the WBUR article in the chat during the meeting for attendees to read.
“I think it is important that people in the community know how close ICE is to the four communities,” Coppe said during the meeting. “It’s going on right here.”
Material from a WBUR article was used in this report.
Thank you for reporting on this.
Where was the same outrage when illegal immigrants were being shuttled into Massachusetts at Hanscom Airfield by the Biden Administration? Planes would land late at night and drop off undocumented border crossers into the local community without any warning. It only became a problem once Maura Healey agreed to take people into shelter at the Lexington Armory.