WASHINGTON AIRPORT OPERATORS APPLAUDED FOR REFUSING TO SERVE ICE DEPORTATION FLIGHTS

BY CHANTAL DA SILVA ON 5/3/19 AT 8:14 AM EDT

Aviation operators in a Washington state county have vowed to stop serving flights carrying immigration detainees being deported out of the country by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

In a statement on Thursday, King County, named after Martin Luther King Jr., announced that operators at King County International Airport would no longer be serving Swift Air flights that researchers from the University of Washington had identified as a charter for ICE. This leaves the immigration agency with no ground support for immigration transfers.

The decision comes after King County Executive Dow Constantine issued an executive order on April 23. The order directed King County's airport to amend its lease practices in hopes of seeing ICE banned from being able to deport immigration detainees from its runways. The move came a year after the county learned that its airport was being used to deport thousands of immigration detainees out of the country.

Constantine's office said Modern Aviation, an airport operator that had been servicing Swift Air flights, had vowed to stop doing so in the future. Meanwhile, the two other providers at the airport, Kenmore Aero Services and Signature Flight Support, said they would not be stepping in to fill the gap.

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