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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh and Will Craft

Plane to purgatory: how Trump’s deportation program shuttles immigrants into lawless limbo

A collage of a chain-link fence overlaying several images. In one panel a hand holds a phone displaying repeated call log entries labeled “Call failed.” In multiple panels, maps are shown with location markers and a plane's path connects them with dotted lines. In the lower right, a group of people, handcuffed, descend airplane stairs in a single-file line.

The Trump administration is shuttling immigrants around the US in irregular and unprecedented ways, according to the findings of a Guardian investigation, in effect vanishing people into a “purgatory” that denies them constitutionally – protected rights.

A review of leaked flight records and passenger manifests from Global Crossing Airlines (GlobalX), the charter company that operates the majority of deportation flights for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), has provided a rare look at the winding journeys of more than 44,000 immigrants detained or deported by the Trump administration.

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