MINNEAPOLIS — Newly released airport surveillance footage reveals federal immigration authorities are utilizing commercial airline flights to transport detained immigrants to holding facilities, with plainclothes escorts who blend in with regular travelers.
The security recordings, obtained via public records requests, capture 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father Adrian Conejo Arias being transported through Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The boy had gained public attention during Minneapolis immigration enforcement actions when photographed wearing a bunny hat during his detention.
The footage shows the father and son appearing relaxed as three plainclothes agents — one man and two women — guide them through the airport terminal. Because they weren’t visibly restrained or in custody, other passengers on their Delta flight to San Antonio likely remained unaware of the situation.
While the current administration primarily relies on ICE Air Operations charter flights for transporting the hundreds of thousands detained for deportation proceedings, human rights advocates are working to monitor these operations. They typically observe detainees being loaded onto aircraft in restraints at sections of airports inaccessible to the public.
According to these watchdog groups, the footage of Liam and his father reveals an alternative transportation method that proves more difficult to track, even though it occurs openly within the same airport terminals where Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in tactical gear now provide security checkpoint support.
The Ecuadorian father, who had been pursuing asylum, and his son were apprehended by ICE personnel in Minnesota on January 20 before being transported to Texas. A judge subsequently ordered their release and they returned to Minnesota, though an immigration court later rejected their asylum petition. According to their legal representative, the family is pursuing an appeal.
Aviation enthusiast and activist Nick Benson, affiliated with grassroots organization MN 50501, which participates in anti-ICE demonstrations, first secured the revealing video footage. Benson explained he had never observed children during his monitoring of ICE charter operations, leading him to theorize ICE was using commercial carriers for such cases. After determining the specific date and time of the father and son’s departure from Minneapolis, he submitted a public records request for the security footage and confirmed his suspicions.
The Associated Press secured identical footage through a comparable request to MSP Airport Police Department. The video depicts Liam’s father carrying his son’s Spider-Man backpack while a female escort presents boarding passes to an airline representative. The male escort and second female agent then accompany them down the jetway.
Delta Airlines refused to provide commentary on the video but stated that most government bookings occur through third-party agencies without advance notification regarding passenger identities or travel purposes. The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to requests for comment.
ICE Air Operations conducts transfers and deportations primarily through flights chartered via airline broker CSI Aviation, which subcontracts with smaller carriers including GlobalX, Eastern Air Express, Bighorn Airways, Key Lime Air, and Avelo Airlines.
Human Rights First reports that ICE Air continues rapidly expanding both domestic transfer and deportation operations, documenting 1,630 immigration enforcement flights in February alone — averaging 42 daily flights, an increase from 39 in January. This total included 183 deportation flights and 1,170 domestic transfer flights.
ICE additionally utilizes U.S. Coast Guard aircraft. Flight Monitor tracked hundreds of flights since June 2025 where Coast Guard planes transported immigrants domestically.
Savi Arvey, director of research and analysis for refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First, noted: “It seems that ICE sometimes uses commercial flights to destinations where they don’t carry out kind of larger scale ICE Air deportation flights.”
While monitors employ flight-tracking websites to follow charter aircraft, these systems cannot track individual passengers on commercial flights, making them “less in the public eye,” Arvey explained. “It adds another level of opaqueness.”
