Critics pressure Massport to help track Hanscom ICE flights

Massport officials say federal immigration authorities don’t tell them when they fly detainees out of Hanscom Field. 

Advocates say state brass need only look out their windows. 

“Massport needs to step up and take some responsibility,” said Hanscom Field Advisory Commission member Terri Ackerman during a recent panel meeting. 

After a pause this summer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is again shuttling detainees through Hanscom. Public records show some of the scope. Critics want a more fulsome picture and are increasingly turning toward Hanscom’s quasi-public operator. 

“There’s stuff that we can do,” Ackerman told The Acton Bridge. “There’s stuff that Massport can do.”

Enforcement surge 

ICE spokesperson James Covington said the agency had been using Hanscom for years. The practice ramped up this year after President Donald Trump took office.

ICE briefly moved flights to Portsmouth International Airport, according to numerous reports, but returned to Hanscom in September as the agency launched its Operation Patriot 2.0 enforcement surge.

In a written statement, Covington said flying out of Hanscom lets ICE move detainees quickly from its Burlington intake center to larger detention facilities. Data obtained via a public records request shows ICE also resumed moving detainees to Hanscom from the Plymouth County jail, where it has a contract to house people. 

ICE launched Patriot 2.0 on September 6. In the first three days of the operation, Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office ferried 44 detainees to the airfield. 

More than 80 people packed HFAC’s September meeting, with several denouncing ICE’s actions. 

Hanscom is already the site of a controversial hangar expansion project. HFAC members said this turnout was still “unprecedented.”

Covington said ICE doesn’t disclose specific operational details due to safety concerns. HFAC members plan to ask anyway and met late last month to discuss a draft letter. 

The panel sent a separate memo to Massport leaders seeking their help.

In an email to The Bridge, Massport spokesperson Samantha Decker reiterated that the agency “is not notified if and when these flights occur” and referred further questions to the federal government. 

Manager of Airport Administration Amber Goodspeed has said Hanscom can’t stop users from landing on the runways. 

‘There’s 10 black vans’

Advocate Thomas Kimball said Hanscom should know when charter planes arrive ready to carry detainees — with or without a formal notice. 

“They have records of all of these charter flights and could potentially, if they just looked at their own runway, say, ‘Hey, there’s 10 black vans coming in all of a sudden,’” he said during HFAC’s regular September session. 

Kimball also suggested that Massport ask its fixed base operators, who refuel planes, to disclose whether they’re working with the federal government. Those firms rent space from Massport, and Kimball said a company contracting with ICE should receive notice before planes arrive. 

Officials acknowledge that data won’t stop flights. But as she and her colleagues penned their ICE letter, HFAC member Barbara Katzenberg said having more information “would make it easier for us to fight.” 

‘Before it’s too late’

Officials in King County, Washington, have tracked detainee flights out of their airport since 2023. The county runs livestreaming cameras and publicly logs each flight.

Advocates in New England and beyond monitor flight tracking websites and have rallied volunteer networks to watch airports when ICE blocks plane-tracking information.

Hanscom Director Chris Willenborg responded to HFAC’s letter on September 24 and reiterated the Massport stance. 

He suggested HFAC contact ICE directly for information. 

Select Board members from Acton, Bedford, Lexington, and Lincoln on the Hanscom Area Towns Committee — which is separate from HFAC — were set to discuss ICE at a meeting October 8.

On one recent afternoon in Monument Square, Louise Luczai displayed a sign promoting the LUCE immigrant resource hotline and called the ICE actions “despicable.”

“There’s no transparency, and we really don’t know what’s going on there,” she said of the agency’s Hanscom footprint.

Asked about the increased pressure on Massport, Ackerman — who represents Acton on HFAC — said people who are worried about ICE must act on many fronts. Massport, she said, is one such front. 

“We really need to stop being so passive and take action before it’s too late,” Ackerman said.