Dallas Love Field sees ICE-linked flights as activists push city to act

Under a blazing morning sun, dozens of people lined up behind a bus near a plane at a private hangar at Dallas Love Field Airport. 

Over the course of an hour, about 25 people, with restraints on their wrists, waists and ankles, could be seen climbing stairs onto a Boeing 737-800, a plane operated by Eastern Air Express. About 14 people in similar restraints disembarked from the plane and boarded the bus. 

For months, Dallas activists and immigrant advocates have protested the transportation of migrants in federal custody through flights at Love Field, saying the city-owned airport should have no role in what they say is the inhumane treatment of hundreds of people. 

Dallas aviation department officials confirmed to The Dallas Morning News that flights connected to federal immigration operations have occurred at Love Field. But the city and a private hangar company on airport grounds say they have no authority over flights conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Patrick Clarke, a spokesperson for the City of Dallas Department of Aviation, told The News in an email: “Dallas Love Field does not manage or oversee federal immigration enforcement operations, nor does the airport have authority over federal decisions regarding the movement of individuals in federal custody.”

“Immigration enforcement activities and the transportation of individuals in federal custody are matters under the jurisdiction of federal agencies and are occurring at major airports across the country,” said Clarke.

ICE Air, the agency’s flight transfer division, uses charter and commercial air operations to transport detained immigrants to their home country or move detainees to ICE’s detention facilities or staging areas across the U.S.

ICE declined to comment about whether the agency currently uses Love Field and what purpose the airport serves for the agency. 

When asked whether immigration-related flights were occurring at DFW International, airport spokesperson Katie Chaumont encouraged The News to “reach out to the Department of Homeland Security, as we do not speak for that federal agency or its programs and processes.”

John Putnam, a Dallas activist who is part of a campaign called “No Love for ICE Air,” said he and other activists began tracking what they believe are ICE-related flights in mid-March by using public flight records and observing planes at Love Field. 

They share information with similar groups around the country. They have documented photos and videos of people in shackles boarding aircraft. 

Federal immigration operations have occurred through Orlando-based Signature Aviation, a private fixed-base operator that leases space from the city-owned Love Field, according to Lauren Rounds, another aviation department spokesperson.

Signature provides aviation services to clients out of a private terminal at Love Field, according to its website. A fixed-base operator is a company that provides aviation services such as fueling, aircraft parking and hangar space. 

“We understand that immigration-related issues can be deeply personal and concerning for many members of the Dallas community,” Rounds told The News.

Signature operates under a standard lease, like other fixed-base operators at Love Field, Rounds said. The city cannot verify the purpose of flights using Signature because the information it receives is generally limited to operational details such as flight times and aircraft type, she said.

Putnam disputes the city’s position that it lacks authority over the operations. He said activists want Dallas to examine its lease with Signature Aviation, pressure the company and hold public hearings about immigration-related operations at Love Field. 

“We know it’s an uphill battle,” he said, “but we think people should know about it happening on city property.”  

Signature Aviation would not confirm or deny any activity related to ICE. 

“Signature, like every fixed-base operator, is required by federal law to serve all government operated or chartered flights,” spokesperson Emily Bauman told The News. “Simply put, we have no ability to restrict flight operations that comply with the law and relevant regulations.”

Bauman didn’t respond to follow-up questions, including what specific federal law she was referring to. The city referred questions about specific flights to Signature, which didn’t respond to follow-up questions.

Paul Lange, a Connecticut-based attorney who specializes in aviation regulatory matters, told The News that airports that take federal funding have “got to keep the airport open on fair and reasonable terms for all types, kinds and classes of user.”

“The concept of limiting flights for ICE – it doesn’t matter whether it’s ICE, whether it’s [a] parachute jumper, whatever,” Lange said. “And it’s really not limited to just the current administration. [The Federal Aviation Administration] has historically taken that approach, because it views that its obligation is to protect the use of federal tax dollars entrusted to it.”

Fixed-based operators, like Signature, also have no power to restrict certain flight operations, he said.

“Virtually every lease at an airport – a tenant at an airport – is subordinated to the grant assurances because FAA guidance material… says that when you lease, your leases should also require your tenants to comply with your grant assurances,” he said.

“Virtually every lease that I’ve seen,” he said, “is that they [Signature] would be in breach of their lease if they put their landlord [Love Field] in violation of their landlord’s obligations to the federal government.”

In Seattle in 2019, a King County executive order sought to ban ICE from operating deportation flights from King County International Airport-Boeing Field. 

A legal battle followed after the federal government sued King County, which led to a district court judge in Tacoma ruling that the flights could continue. After the district court ruling, King County withdrew its executive order, replaced it with a new, more lenient one and appealed the ruling, The Seattle Times reported. 

A federal appellate court ruled in the federal government’s favor, saying that the county violated the “intergovernmental immunity doctrine” and violated an agreement between the two parties that says the government and “its agents” have the right to use the airport without charge, The Seattle Times reported.

ICE-related flights are occurring across the country. In March, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey wrote a letter to the CEO of Signature Aviation calling on the company to “cease providing services that support ICE’s deportation flights” out of Hanscom Field airport near Boston.

“You have a choice to either continue profiting from ICE’s unlawful tactics that are depriving people of due process and separating parents from their children, or you can stand with the people and communities you say that you serve,” Healey wrote. 

Media reports that ICE has increased flight operations across the country come at a time when President Donald Trump has made an ongoing immigration crackdown one of the key priorities of his second term. 

The New York Times reported that in May 2025, the Trump administration conducted 190 deportation flights, more than any other month since September 2021. In May 2025, the administration flew 1,083 total flights that included domestic transfers and returns from deportation, according to The Times.

According to Human Rights First, an international human rights organization, there have been 142 immigration enforcement flights out of Dallas this year, based on publicly available aviation data. “Flight data is cross-referenced with public records, media reports, communications with attorneys and family members, and observations from trusted partner organizations,” according to the Human Rights First website.

The “No Love For ICE Air” campaign said on social media that there have been 163 ICE flights at Love Field this year, based on publicly available flight data. The News could not independently verify that data.

Andrew Arthur, resident fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said that ICE transfers detainees domestically to prevent overcrowding at detention facilities. The agency could also use buses to transfer people domestically, he said. 

“The other alternative is ICE can’t move people out, which means that they remain in increasingly overcrowded facilities,” Arthur said. “Enforcement is still going to happen.” 

Domestic flight transfers have been operating as long as there have been airlines and immigration enforcement, going back multiple administrations, he said. Dallas and Texas see a number of flights, he said, due to the proximity to the border. 

Under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, the city has no authority or means to stop the flights, he said. 

At Dallas Love Field on Tuesday morning, Dallas Morning News journalists witnessed a bus with bars on the windows pull into a Signature lot. The loading and unloading of people in restraints was visible from a public observation deck, where families, children and aviation enthusiasts watched planes take off and land. 

Most of the people getting on and off the plane were men. Three women boarded the plane and one disembarked from it. Some people wore boots and jeans. Others wore Crocs, sneakers and sweatshirts. 

Some took the stairs one step at a time, the sunlight glinting off the metal restraints. Bags were unloaded from under the bus and onto the plane. A person loaded a handful of more metal restraints onto the bottom cargo space of the bus. 

One person using crutches was assisted up the stairs. 

Immigrant advocates say Plano-based Atlantic Aviation previously serviced flights connected to ICE at Love Field. When reached by The News, Atlantic neither confirmed nor denied servicing those flights. 

“As an airport tenant, we are required to provide access and services on a nondiscriminatory basis to all aircraft operators using the airports where we operate,” Atlantic said in a statement. “We do not determine or influence the mission, passengers, or purpose of flights operated by our customers.”

Lanie Olmo, an airline customer service manager and activist, tracks flights coming in and out of Love Field by using public data and applications. 

“There’s FlightAware, Flightradar24 and ADS-B Exchange, and so the method for that is that all the planes have transponders,” she said. “It becomes much harder to track the plane and get the tail number sometimes because… they’re turning off transponders.” 

Olmo started helping track the flights earlier this year after plane spotters told her that they were seeking to find out the movements of certain aircraft to and from Love Field. 

Putnam, the Dallas activist, said he has identified a pattern to the flights. Typically, a plane arrives from El Paso, though he has also tracked planes arriving from Florida or California. He said he has seen a small number of restrained people leave the aircraft before about 30 to 100 others arrive by bus or van and board the plane. 

The plane then typically flies to either Alexandria, La., or Harlingen, Texas, Putnam said. Harlingen and Alexandria have been identified in national media reports as deportation hubs. The flight on Tuesday came from El Paso and departed to Alexandria. The plane was scheduled to return to Harlingen later Tuesday and fly to El Paso, according to public flight data. 

Putnam referred The News to videos of transfers at the airport posted on a public Instagram account called “No Love for ICE Air.” Some of the campaign organizers are affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America and other organizing groups like El Movimiento. 

Eric Folkerth, lead pastor at Kessler Park United Methodist Church, is a member of the Clergy League for Emergency Action and Response DFW, a group that has protested at Love Field in recent months against the ICE flight operations. 

While demonstrating outside the airport, Folkerth said he saw buses he believed were being used for ICE operations move out of protesters’ view. Folkerth said he has seen similar white buses depart from the Dallas ICE field office. 

“We think all the citizens of Dallas should be concerned about an airport that is publicly-owned in our name being used to assist this kind of harm,” Folkerth said. 

A Dallas Morning News analysis found that in 2025, the majority of people arrested by ICE officers in the Dallas area did not have criminal convictions. 

A New York Times analysis found the Dallas field office recorded the second-highest number of immigration arrests among ICE field offices nationwide from January 2025 through early March 2026. The Dallas ICE field office covers North Texas and Oklahoma.

ICE has previously publicized a removal flight led by its Dallas field office. Last year, the agency released photos showing 122 people with final orders of removal boarding a China-bound charter flight. The agency didn’t identify the airport used. 

According to a webpage that has now been archived by ICE, the agency’s air operations are based in Mesa, Ariz., In addition to Mesa, air operation locations are based in San Antonio, Brownsville, Texas; Alexandria, La.; and Miami. The agency has also said previously that it operates out of Harlingen, according to documents reviewed by The News.