Trump has accumulated nearly 6,000 deportation flights during his second term

The United States has reached record figures in deportation operations under the administration of Donald Trump, with nearly 6,000 flights carried out between January and July of 2025, according to data collected by activists monitoring these operations.

According to a report from the Associated Press (AP), activist Tom Cartwright, who has been tracking the so-called “deportation flights” for years, documented 5,962 flights thus far in Trump’s second term, an increase of 41% compared to the same period in 2024.

Only in July were 1,214 flights recorded, the highest monthly figure since 2020.

Most of these operations are carried out by three airlines: GlobalX, Eastern Air Express, and Avelo Airlines.

Flights transport immigrants to detention centers, border airports, or directly to their destination countries, primarily in Central America and Mexico.

There have also been 68 military flights since January, 18 of which occurred in July, most heading to the Guantánamo Bay base in Cuba, AP emphasized.

The pressure on those trying to continue these operations has increased. According to activists, the airlines contracted by ICE have started to use false call signs and to block the queue numbers of the planes on public tracking sites like FlightRadar24 and FlightAware, making tracking more difficult.

“ICE does everything possible to hide these operations and make them indistinguishable from commercial flights,” denounced Guadalupe González from the organization La Resistencia, based in Seattle, to the AP.

Monitoring, however, continues thanks to networks of volunteers and the use of cameras installed in airports such as King County in Seattle, where the boarding of immigrants is streamed live.

The images show the detainees being transported on buses, chained by their hands and feet, subjected to searches, and struggling to climb the stairs of the planes with extreme difficulty.

“Sometimes the chains are tightened before boarding,” reported activist Stan Shikuma to the AP.

The monitoring that Cartwright began with his group Witness at the Border has now been taken over by the NGO Human Rights First, under the project “ICE Flight Monitor.”

Its director, Uzrz Zeya, regarded this effort as an example of "citizen transparency in the face of government actions that impact thousands of lives."

The magnitude of the increase has raised alarms among human rights advocates, who denounce the lack of official information from ICE and the deliberate attempt to keep operations that affect thousands of families in the U.S. hidden.

Just a few days ago, the Donald Trump administration reached a new record, with an average of 1,435 undocumented immigrants being deported per day over the last two weeks, the highest figure recorded in the country’s recent history.

According to data from the Department of Homeland Security, cited by The Washington Times, more than 59,000 individuals remain in ICE custody, while daily arrests are approximately 930.

This trend, driven by the so-called Big Beautiful Bill —a law that injects billions of dollars into immigration operations and increases detention capacity— could lead to exceeding half a million deportations in a year, surpassing the record set in 2012 under the Obama administration.

Frequently asked questions about deportations during Donald Trump's second term