Massport Has Facilitated over 6,000 ICE Deportations and Removals Through Hanscom

ByToby Sackton

Dec 10, 2025 – A new record of ICE flights from Hanscom Field, prepared by Human Rights First, suggests that over 6,000 individuals were flown out of Hanscom Field to U.S. prisons and/or unknown international destinations between January and November 2025. 

There were 114 ICE flights out of Hanscom since January, and Massport has denied any knowledge of these flights to the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission in an obvious lie.  This report documents every ICE deportation flight departing Hanscom and charts the number going to various destinations, as shown below. With an average passenger load of 54 per flight, total ICE operations at Hanscom have involved more than 6000 people.

The Batavia ICE facility in Buffalo, where the greatest number of flights are headed, has a capacity of 650 beds. Buffalo is also a transfer point to Moshannon, an ICE prison near Phillipsburg, PA. According to Investigative Post, a Buffalo-based nonprofit news organization, there are frequent reports of overcrowding and of detainees being forced to sleep on gymnasium floors. IThe facility held nearly 800 people in August and, according to experts interviewed by Investigative Post, ICE is under reporting the actual number being held. In addition, numerous reports of medical abuse are documented in a Senate report by Sen. Jon Ossoff. One detainee had his fingers amputated after being denied treatment for frostbite.

Another suffered what appeared to be a stroke after being denied regular medication. And the report showed detainees waiting months for prescriptions or essential medical equipment, such as a walker for a paralyzed detainee.

Data from Harvard and Physicians for Human Rights ranks Batavia in the top 10 nationwide for the use of solitary confinement. The average monthly number of people held in solitary jumped from 34 to 69 by late 2025. Reports indicate that many solitary placements last longer than 15 days, meeting the international definition of torture.

Conditions are also notorious In Louisiana, the destination of the greatest number of Hanscom detainees, as before May many were transferred through Buffalo. At the 400-bed ICE staging facility known as the “Black Hole” at the Alexandria International Airport, detainees are supposed to be held for a maximum of 72 hours. The Guardian documented that 20%, or 5,600 people, between January and July 2025 were held longer than that limit, with some held 10 days or more. ICE also abrogated its legal responsibility to conduct medical screenings within 12 hours from the period between February and May, leaving people with no treatment for ear infections, fever and chest congestion during their detention.

Alexandria is also a sorting hub. Detainees held for longer detention are sent to two nearby prison warehouses at Basile and Pine Prairie, each with a capacity of about 1,000 beds. All three centers in Louisiana are run by GEO Group, a global corporation that owns and operates numerous correctional and detention facilities and represents 37% of all ICE holding capacity.

The Basile South Louisiana ICE Processing Facility is also notorious for inhumanetreatment. In October 2025, according to the Guardian and an ACLU filing, a group of detainees filed a complaint that included allegations of forced oral sex, stalking detainees in showers, and the theft of underwear and hygiene products by an assistant warden. Yale law students also reported “starvation level” food portions in January 2025, saying a full day’s meal consisted of “five nuggets, two breads, and a cup of rice.”

At least 14 pregnant women were held in Basile in April, despite an ICE policy against jailing people who are pregnant. One woman suffered a miscarriage and subsequent infection due to lack of care. Others were shackled during transport and while miscarrying. They were denied prenatal vitamins, and one was placed in solitary confinement, according to the ACLU.

Based on average loads of 54 passengers per flight, at least 1,400 people have been taken out of Massachusetts to these Louisiana concentration camps. Many of them were secretly rushed out of state before they could contact lawyers or family, and some who were subsequently deported have simply disappeared.

Individuals Sent from Massachusetts to South Louisiana Who Were Documented by Press Reports Include:

Rümeysa Öztürk, March 25-26, 2025

Öztürk was arrested by ICE agents near her home in Somerville, MA. While her lawyers were filing an emergency habeas petition in Boston federal court to keep her in the state, ICE flew her to the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile.

Bruna Ferreira, November 2025

Ferreira, a Brazilian national and mother of US citizens, was arrested in Revere and, according to Congressman Seth Moulton who investigated the case, was “swiftly transferred” to a detention facility in Louisiana.

Pascual Cuin González, Sept 12-18, 2025

An asylee from Guatemala living in New Bedford, MA, González was detained by ICE in New Bedford and moved out of Massachusetts within 24 hours. He was first flown to Buffalo, NY, and then transferred to a prison in Pine Prairie, Louisiana.

Luís David Ajtzac Osório, September 2025 Osório was a near-miss. An 18-year-old detained by ICE agents in Fairhaven, MA, he was transported to Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, MA, and placed on a plane destined for an out-of-state detention center (likely Louisiana or Texas). He was physically on the plane when a federal judge in Boston issued a “stay of transfer” order, forcing ICE to take him off the flight and return him to the Plymouth County Correctional Facility.

Lexington Alarm!’s campaign to force Massport to halt ICE flights from Hanscom Field needs your active support. That potentially thousands of Massachusetts residents are being illegally rendered to out-of-state facilities to face abuse and mistreatment is a clear violation of the due process protections guaranteed under our own state constitution. Massport has the authority to restrict ICE operations and protect those with legal claims, court appointments, work permits and green card check-in appointments from being secretly transported out of state by ICE, a federal agency with a documented record of detainee abuse, excessive force, refusal to follow law enforcement norms, and terrorizing Massachusetts immigrant communities.

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