- ICE ended charter deportation flights at Dallas Love Field on October 1, 2026, and moved operations to Fort Worth.
- The agency said detainee transfers could still use Love Field on an as-needed basis.
- Organizers tracked 215 ICE flights in 2026, including domestic transfers and flights to Mexico, and vowed to continue monitoring.
ICE ended charter deportation flights at Dallas Love Field on October 1, 2026, and confirmed that the operations moved to Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport. The relocation came after months of protests over detained immigrants being transported through the city-owned airport.
The last flight activists said they observed boarded on September 29. Lauren Rounds, a spokesperson for the Dallas Department of Aviation, said the private operator told city officials that “the flights would end October 1.”
Organizers welcomed the departure but said it did not end the flights or their campaign. The agency said detainee transfers could still take place at Love Field when needed.
The new location is in Fort Worth. Local officials have not confirmed or denied ICE activity there.
The airport switch has not ended transfers through Dallas
ICE said its charter flights from Love Field had stopped “for now,” while transfers of detainees could still happen there on an “as-needed basis.” The agency uses charter and commercial aircraft for deportations and to move people between detention centers and other locations.
It also said it does not disclose specific operating locations, schedules, passenger totals or other flight details “for operational security reasons.” The Department of Homeland Security said transportation choices reflect operational needs, safety, security, geography and the need to move people in custody in a controlled and humane manner. It added that ICE continually evaluates air and ground transport options.
Rounds said no other operator had reported handling ICE-related flights at Love Field. She also said, “The city cannot speak to the operator’s reasoning.” The company has not publicly explained whether the move followed protests, a contract decision or another operational consideration.
Fort Worth spokesperson Sana Syed said the city’s public-use airport serves federal agencies and that their use does not require city permission. She said Fort Worth has no contract with the federal government for aviation use of its public airports. Airport spokesperson Jason Meyer said airport officials have no control over federal flight activity and referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security.
Organizers counted hundreds of flights and thousands of passengers
No Love for ICE Air said it monitored 215 ICE flights in 2026. The group divided its tally between domestic transfers and international flights:
| Flight category | Flights tracked | People counted or estimated |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic transfers between U.S. detention facilities | 46 | At least 2,606 |
| International flights to Mexico | 12 | An estimated 1,166 |
The organizers said their counts were likely underestimates. Human Rights First recorded 15 ICE-linked flights at Love Field in 2024, before the larger tally activists described this year.
John Putnam, a flight tracker and organizer with No Love for ICE Air, described watching shackled passengers board aircraft. “It feels like a modern-day slave ship when you see somebody with their wrists, waist, and ankles, shackled.”
Activists said some passengers appeared to be young adults and pregnant women. They did not identify those people or provide information about their immigration histories. The observed flights included removals from the United States as well as domestic transfers.
Protesters tracked flights and pressed aviation companies
The coalition began monitoring flights from Love Field in March 2026. Organizers used public flight information, including aircraft call signs, tail numbers, origins and destinations, to follow suspected ICE operations.
In July, ICE-linked operations shifted from Atlantic Aviation to Signature Aviation, the fixed-base operator handling the flights. An email obtained through an open-records request showed Brett Langsdorf, the company’s Love Field general manager, asking to install black mesh fencing around the terminal to avoid “further media scrutiny.” The request was denied.
The campaign continued after the flights stopped at Love Field. Organizers said they tracked a suspected flight to Alliance airport on October 6, 2026, and showed related footage at a news conference. ICE has confirmed the move, but Fort Worth officials have not independently confirmed the activity.
The campaign also drew attention from federal lawmakers. In May 2026, 40 members of Congress, including Texas Representatives Jasmine Crockett, Julie Johnson and Joaquin Castro, signed a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration seeking greater transparency about deportation flights. The lawmakers described the flights as having “rapidly expanded under President Trump’s aggressive mass deportation agenda.”
Organizers say the move is not a legal victory
Lanie Olmo, an organizer with No Love for ICE Air and the Democratic Socialists of America, called the transfers “Horror in plain sight.” She said organizers had collected video and photographs involving nearly 3,500 detained people.
“We have video and photo evidence documenting nearly 3,500 of these detained individuals, and they are not statistics to us. We looked at their faces. We watched them walk across that tarmac, and what we saw made us sick.”
Putnam said the end of flights at Love Field did not represent a legal win. He also said ICE could return if it found another aviation company willing to contract with the agency. The group’s campaign, he said, showed that “People can legally and peacefully resist ICE and that people, not politicians and corporations, have the ability to make an impact.”
Olmo said activists would continue watching for a renewed contract with either operator. “We believe this change is permanent, but we will remain vigilant if Signature or Atlantic Aviation decides to do a contract with ICE Air; we will be back because this fight is not over.”
Fort Worth activist Lindsey James, with Revolutionary Front DFW, said groups had built networks to protect immigrant neighbors and would continue that work. “Our communities deserve dignity, safety, and solidarity, not complicity in these atrocities and abuses.” At a gathering marking the end of operations at Love Field, Rev. Eric Folkerth of Kessler Park United Methodist Church told participants, “Remember this day, but continue the work.”
The cities say federal agencies control their airport operations
Dallas officials have said the city cannot approve, supervise or prohibit federal immigration operations run through private aviation companies at Love Field. Fort Worth has similarly said federal use does not require city permission and that it has no contract governing the flights.
That leaves airport officials describing limited control over federal activity, while organizers continue to document it. Olmo said her group was working with Tarrant County organizers prepared to bring the same public attention to ICE activity in Fort Worth.
Putnam said, “I don’t want this for Fort Worth. That wasn’t our intention.” He said removing the operation from Dallas’s “hardest hit communities” was valuable, while Olmo characterized the shift as a relocation: “The fight is not over; it is only moved.”
