Minneapolis now has daily deportation flights. One man has been documenting them

"Benson is counting people, as they hobble out of a mini bus, up the steps and onto the plane. These immigration detainees, their hands and feet shackled, are being flown out of Minnesota, caught up in President Trump's sweeping federal immigration campaign that started in Minneapolis back in December. The administration has touted it as the largest operation ever. Federally chartered deportation flights on ICE Air, as the Department of Homeland Security calls it, aren't new. They were happening under the Biden administration as well."

"The flights have also become increasingly harder to track, and information or data about the passengers is difficult to get. That's where observers like Benson have stepped in. Today's plane will head to Texas. "It's just happening in the background," says Benson, motioning to the rest of the airport. "Here you could be sitting in the Delta lounge eating your cheese and crackers, and you wouldn't have even noticed that that was anything unusual going on out the window.""

Nick Benson stands inside an elevator terminal at the Minneapolis-St. Paul international, watching a chartered deportation plane parked away from the gates while counting shackled immigration detainees boarding via stairs. The detainees hobble from a minibus up onto the aircraft. Federally chartered ICE Air deportation flights occurred under the Biden administration, but their frequency and scope have essentially doubled in Trump's second term and the administration calls the operation the largest ever. The flights have become harder to track and passenger data are scarce, so plane enthusiasts and independent observers have begun monitoring flights and documenting departures.

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