ICE conducts single adult, family unit removal flights to Cuba and Jamaica

WASHINGTON, CMC – The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency on Friday said that it continued to facilitate removal flights of single adults and family units to Cuba and Jamaica.

ICE said that those removal flights took place between August 26 and August 30 and also included nationals from Brazil, Cameroon, Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Liberia and Mexico. 

“If a non-citizen arrives and has no legal basis to remain in the United States, they are processed and removed quickly, consistent with US law,” ICE said. 

In the year following the end of the Title 42 public health order — between May 12, 2023, and May 12, 2024 — ICE said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removed or returned over 742,000 individuals, the vast majority of whom crossed the southwest border, including more than 111,000 individual family members. 

It said total removals and returns in that period exceeded removals and returns in every full fiscal year since 2010. 

Since the presidential proclamation to temporarily suspend the entry of certain non-citizens across the southern border and the complementary joint interim final rule issued by DHS and the US Department of Justice 12 weeks ago, ICE said DHS has removed and returned more than 92,000 individuals to more than 130 countries, including by operating more than 300 international repatriation flights. 

“In keeping with standard practise, the United States ensures that all non-citizens without a legal basis to remain in the United States are properly screened for valid protection claims and withholding of removal in accordance with our laws and US international obligations,” ICE said. 

“This applies to all non-citizens, regardless of nationality, to ensure the orderly and humane processing, transfer and removal of single adults and family units,” it added, stating that non-citizens placed into removal proceedings present their claims for relief or protection from removal before immigration judges in the immigration courts, which are administered by the US Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review. 

Due to operational security reasons, ICE said it does not confirm or discuss future or pending transportation operations. 

ICE said its Air Operations facilitates the transfer and removal of non-citizens, including family units, via commercial airlines and chartered flights in support of its field offices and other DHS initiatives. 

In fiscal year 2023, ICE said its Enforcement and Removal Operations conducted 142,580 removals and 62,545 Title 42 expulsions to more than 170 countries worldwide.

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