ICE deportation flights end at Dallas Love Field, shift to Fort Worth airport
ICE deportation flights are no longer operating out of Dallas Love Field, that's according to the agency, city officials, and activists.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses charter and commercial flights to deport immigrants and move detainees between detention centers around the country. Activists who have protested those flights for months said the operations at Love Field have now moved to Fort Worth.
Videos taken by activists and shared with CBS News Texas show men, women, and children being loaded onto planes at Love Field, some of them shackled at the hands and feet. They're all undocumented immigrants, being deported by ICE.
"It's horror in plain sight," said Lanie Olmo, an activist with No Love for ICE Air.
Since March, No Love for ICE Air has been monitoring ICE charter flights landing and departing at the airport. The group said they have monitored 215 ICE flights in 2026. Activists said they have witnessed at least 2,606 people being shuffled between detention facilities inside the United States across 46 flights, and another 1,166 people being deported to Mexico across 12 separate flights. Now, they're celebrating the end of these flights at Love Field after months of pushback.
"It feels like a modern-day slave ship when you see somebody with their wrists, waist, and ankles, shackled," said John Putnam, a flight tracker with the group. "It has not operated out of Love Field for over two weeks and has fully moved operations to Perot Fort Worth Alliance Airport."
Dallas officials confirmed the flights ended this month. Lauren Rounds, a Love Field spokesperson, said Signature Aviation, the private operator that handled the flights, told the city that "the flights would end October 1," adding that no other operator has reported handling ICE-related flights at the airport. ICE officials shared a similar message, saying ICE charter flights out of Love Field have stopped for now, but said other operations, like detainee transfers, could still happen on an "as-needed basis." But neither the city nor ICE would say why the change was made.
"We believe this is a permanent operational change," Putnam said.
ICE also confirmed to CBS News Texas that its charter flights have moved to Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, but Fort Worth officials would not confirm or deny that. Sana Syed, a City of Fort Worth spokesperson, said the city's airport supports a variety of aviation operations, including federal government agencies, and that federal use does not require the city's permission. CBS News Texas contacted Signature Aviation for comment, but the company did not return our request.
Putnam and Olmo said the group continues monitoring what's happening in the skies.
"We are ready in close partnership with Tarrant County organizers who are ready and prepped to bring the same public attention to whatever ICE does in Fort Worth," said Olmo.
