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ICE on the Bayou Part 1:
The Hidden Hub
A small Louisiana airport that most people never heard of is running the country's biggest deportation operation
Oct 2025 – Mar 2026
flights from Alexandriaper Human Rights First
on averagethrough Alexandria
locationsdomestic & international
A WBRZ investigation has found that Alexandria International Airport has become the top hub for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights in the country.
With the help of the group ICE Flight Monitor, WBRZ Investigative Unit reporter Stephen Stock closely tracked 3,956 ICE flights — both domestic and international — that came in and flew out of Alexandria International Airport between October 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026.
Without these ICE flights, Alexandria International, which sits on a former World War II military base, only sees a handful of commercial flights each day.
WBRZ then cross-referenced that ICE Flight Monitor data by comparing it with data documenting all airplane flights, commercial, private and government-contracted, that flew out of and into Alexandria International. WBRZ purchased that comprehensive flight data from the website FlightAware.
We then verified many of those flights by witnessing them firsthand. During our six-month-long investigation, we watched dozens of ICE flights taking off and landing from Alexandria in person. We tracked those flights using the airplanes' tail N-numbers and using publicly available FAA ownership data.
The flight data shows since January 2025, Alexandria ranks first out of 85 different airports around the world for the number of ICE flights. Alexandria far outpaces other locations in the top ten as the destination and origin — the main hub — of all ICE deportation flights inside the U.S. and around the world.
"We've seen that 46 percent of deportation flights originated in Alexandria. And, you know, on average, 14 different flights are going through Alexandria every day."— Savi Arvey, Human Rights First / ICE Flight Monitor
Arvey directs research and analysis and oversees ICE Flight Monitor, part of the organization Human Rights First, which tracks all ICE flights. Human Rights First has offices in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
"The numbers are really massive," Arvey said. "Alexandria has just been kind of really this central point."
Alexandria Airport sits in a community known as England Airpark, which also is home to a retirement community, residential housing, a child-care center, an Army military training facility, a community college, an aviation technical school, private corporate offices and a championship golf course.
The WBRZ Investigative Unit tracked more than 2,036 different inbound flights that originated from 85 different locations both within the U.S. and around the world since last October.
Where the Planes Go
WBRZ tracked 2,036 inbound flights from 85 locations, 1,920 outbound domestic flights, and 437 international flights
Top Domestic Destinations
International Deportation Flights 437 flights to 17 countries
"It's a hub. It works as a spoke as a wheel. Within the surrounding area of Alexandria, you have the detention centers, you have Jena, you have Pine Prairie, you have Basil, you have Richwood, you have Jackson, you have all of these detention centers where then you can house for long term people, for long periods of time, more people and then take groups of them to Alexandria."— Homero Lopez, New Orleans immigration attorney & former appellate immigration judge
Int'l Airport
"The Alexandria International Airport is a transportation hub for ICE Air Operations."
In a subsequent statement, ICE spokesperson Angelina Vicknair added: "This is a normal part of operations. ICE may increase removal flights to address case backlogs, resulting in higher volumes. Since January 2025, ASF (Alexandria Staging Facility) facilitated 152,701 removals on ICE Air Operations — approximately 24% of ICE's total removals."
Read the Full ICE Statement →Alexandria Ranks First
Since January 2025, Alexandria ranks first — ahead of Harlingen and El Paso, Texas — as the destination and origin — the main hub — of all ICE deportation flights inside the U.S. and around the world.
The Economics of Deportation
"There's nothing going on here that's illegal," said Ralph Hennessy, executive director of the England Economic and Industrial Development District (EEIDD), which is overseen by an appointed board and owns and runs the airport and surrounding community.
"Why should we protect it and try to hide it? You know, it's there. Everyone knows," Hennessy told WBRZ. "Look up in the sky and you see the planes landing and taking off, you know? So everyone in the region here is very aware of the activity."
Hennessy says the airport, which is always looking to attract business and income to the EEIDD, does enjoy an economic benefit from the ICE activity. Hennessy told WBRZ the EEIDD makes millions of dollars off the federal government's presence at the airport in the form of lease payments, landing fees, fuel taxes plus salaries paid to hundreds of support personnel.
"The state of Louisiana says this is a permissible business that can be here. My board has said, okay, we're good with this. They've approved the leases. They've approved the operating permits. And therefore, that's one of the businesses — we can't ignore the fiduciary responsibility that we have."— Ralph Hennessy, Executive Director, England Economic & Industrial Development District
Voices from the Ground
Advocates, attorneys, and those who passed through Alexandria's deportation pipeline
"The numbers are way up this past year. Both in terms of deportation flights and internal ICE transfer flights from all over the country to Alexandria."
"I try to focus on, you know, showing up for people in the way that I can. And also serve as the documentation and the witnessing that needs to happen now in order to change the system in the future, to stop this from happening again."
"It's really heavy. You know, one of the first flights I observed was a flight to Cameroon where there's a genocide going on, and knowing that — we are putting people on planes and turning them over to governments that are trying to harm them. That's really awful."
"The numbers are really massive. Alexandria has just been kind of really this central point."
"We're really concerned about kind of the lack of accountability from this administration and what this increase in number of flights means for communities across the country."
"After a while, you start figuring out they're moving me a lot. Well, you know, to be honest, I never heard of Alexandria before."
A three-decade Philadelphia resident, Della Valle was picked up by ICE last August while on vacation with his American family in the U.S. Virgin Islands. ICE officers kept him in the dark about where he was being taken.
"I was able to see one sign, one sign that says Alexander. Later I figured, I said, well, I don't know, I'm in Alexandria. But I had no idea whether it was Alexandria, Florida. Alexandria, Mississippi. Alexander, wherever. You know, no idea at all. You know, you ask and they don't tell you."
Methodology
WBRZ's Investigative Unit compiled all ICE flights from October 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026 using data from ICE Flight Monitor, operated by Human Rights First. Reporters cross-referenced those records with comprehensive flight data purchased from FlightAware covering all aircraft movements in and out of Alexandria International Airport. Many flights were independently verified by WBRZ reporters on-site, observing aircraft tail N-numbers in person using publicly available FAA ownership data. The team conducted this six-month investigation continuously and witnessed dozens of ICE operations firsthand.
ICE on the Bayou Part 2:
One Man's Odyssey
A Philadelphia-area immigrant held 8 months, moved through Louisiana in a deportation system costing taxpayers an estimated $205,836 just to move him multiple times
in ICE custody
to move one man
Alexandriathat he tracked himself
on one stretch alone
Hundreds of flights out of Louisiana every month are moving thousands of people in handcuffs and shackles across the country and around the world, according to a WBRZ investigation "ICE on the Bayou."
WBRZ's Stephen Stock spoke with nearly a half dozen people caught up in the system, some in person, some by telephone, some through FaceTime and some through encrypted messages.
Angela Della Valle, a 49-year-old Philadelphia school teacher, stood in the rain and watched busloads of people being unloaded in handcuffs and shackles off airplanes at Louisiana's Alexandria airport.
"Every human being who has been transferred here, deported from here, has some family, has someone who loves them, is someone who's looking for them," Della Valle said.
She also watched others in custody led off buses and onto airplanes with little publicly known destinations.
"The most disorienting is the lack of information. You're always in a black hole. You never know. You never know where you are, where you're going. You have no control."— Angela Della Valle, Philadelphia school teacher
She couldn't help but think that one of those people could be her husband of 24 years, Carlos.
"Could be Carlos, but it also could be my student," Della Valle said. "It could be my neighbor. They could be from Minnesota or Florida, California or Maine. Because I've met them all. We've met them all. Many were. And they can be. They can be sent back despite having entered even legally."
Carlos Della Valle's Story
A three-decade Philadelphia-area resident, detained the day after a federal jury acquitted him — then moved across the country for eight months
"Unbelievable that this can happen here. That's like the hardest thing for me."
Carlos Della Valle has lived in the Philadelphia area for three decades where he built and ran his own successful business. ICE agents detained him last August, a day after a U.S. District Court jury in the U.S. Virgin Islands acquitted him of illegally re-entering the country. That detention started an eight-month legal ordeal of ICE flights and bus trips that only ended when a court released him in late April.
"There was no information," Carlos Della Valle said. "I was trying to gather information from whatever little bit I could hear."
The Journey Through the System
While he said ICE agents kept him in the dark during his eight months in custody, he pieced together enough information to know he flew in and out of Alexandria at least four different times.
"I was able to see one sign that says Alexandria," Carlos Della Valle said. "And that's when I figured, well, I don't know, I'm in Alexandria, but I had no idea whether it was Alexandria, Florida. Or Alexandria, Mississippi. No idea at all."
With his help, WBRZ traced his path through the deportation system. From the U.S. Virgin Islands, ICE flew him to Puerto Rico, then Miami, then bused him to Krome Detention outside Miami, then flew him to Alexandria, then back to South Florida and Broward County's Transitional Center, then a bus to Alligator Alcatraz in the middle of Florida.
"No humanity there at all. I didn't see it."— Carlos Della Valle, on his time flying on ICE flights
After Alligator Alcatraz, ICE sent him back to Krome, up to Broward, then to Pompano Beach, a flight to Jacksonville, then a bus to Orlando, to Baker Correctional in north Florida, then to Lake City, then a flight back to Alexandria and a bus to Winn Correctional, then a flight out of Alexandria to Port Isabel in Texas and to the border in Brownsville.
Thinking he was being deported, he ended up on a flight to El Paso, then another flight back to Alexandria and a bus back to Winn Correctional in Winnfield, Louisiana.
"I was in chains for 38 hours before I was let out. You actually had people falling asleep and falling on the floor because they couldn't stay awake."— Carlos Della Valle
The Price of One Man's Odyssey
Using publicly available costs — published landing fees, fuel taxes, jet fuel prices, fuel capacities, travel times and pilot and ICE officer salaries — WBRZ estimated that moving Carlos Della Valle alone cost U.S. taxpayers at least $205,836.47 in bus and airplane fuel, ICE personnel expenses, pilot costs, rent and airport fees.
"We know at least eight people who passed through Alexandria," Angela Della Valle said. "They were sent to Arizona. And they came back to Alexandria. Then they're in Florida and then they're back (in Alexandria.) Where's the efficiency in this? How does it make economic sense?"
Carlos Della Valle said he believes the lack of information and constant moving from place to place was intentional.
"I do believe it was by design. If you don't have a chance to know where you're at, if you can't communicate with your family and loved ones, with your lawyer, you're going to give up."— Carlos Della Valle
"ICE Air Operations utilizes restraints in accordance with U.S. ICE policy."
ICE spokesperson Angelina Vicknair added that "ICE is committed to the safety and welfare of those in custody throughout the entire transfer and removal process. Allegations of inhumane treatment or attempts to hide information is categorically false."
Read the Full ICE Statement →Other Voices from the System
Others who passed through Alexandria's deportation pipeline share their experiences
"We are in handcuffs. We are tied from the feet to the belly (of the airplane.) It's a scary experience."
"You ask the ICE members (officers) and they tell you, 'Oh, you go to Alcatraz' or 'We're going to throw you into the ocean or you're going to Texas.' They don't give you information (about) exactly where you are going. So basically, you just go with the flow like whatever happened, happened."
"The government put me on a flight. I don't lie because I don't know the people (in Louisiana.) I don't have any family or any of others (who I know.) So that's why I don't like it."
"I know my husband he has nightmares of wearing the chains, of feeling them. He feels them still. He still feels the chains."
The Broader Picture
WBRZ tracked nearly 4,000 of these flights dating back to October of last year. Most ICE flights headed from Alexandria to Texas cities near the Mexican border like Harlingen and El Paso, but WBRZ also tracked hundreds of flights to places like Youngstown, Ohio, Gadsden, Alabama, Indianapolis and Milwaukee, and even Anchorage, Alaska.
More than 400 international flights out of Alexandria were also tracked, going to at least 17 different countries including Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, Brazil, Havana and Guantanamo Bay and as far away as Bulgaria and Senegal on the west coast of Africa.
An ICE spokesperson said all these flights, bus rides, restraints and back-and-forth movements are done in accordance with U.S. ICE policy and that Alexandria serves as a hub for these operations to enhance ICE's "removal and transport efficiencies."
WBRZ found these operations have also become big business, making millions for private contracts and the state of Louisiana. That part of the story is in Part Three of ICE on the Bayou.
Methodology
WBRZ's Investigative Unit compiled all ICE flights from October 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026 using data from ICE Flight Monitor, operated by Human Rights First. Reporters cross-referenced those records with comprehensive flight data purchased from FlightAware. Cost estimates for Carlos Della Valle's journey were calculated using publicly available landing fees, fuel taxes, jet fuel prices, aircraft fuel capacities, flight durations, and published ICE officer and pilot salary data. The team conducted this six-month investigation continuously and witnessed dozens of ICE operations firsthand.
ICE on the Bayou Part 3:
Benefits and Costs
Alexandria Airport and the Authority that runs it makes tens of millions of dollars from the Federal Government running ICE deportation operations there.
from ICE air ops last year
commitment at the airport
for airport improvements
for deportation operations
Alexandria's regional airport has become a major hub for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights — and that means millions of dollars in income paid to the airport by groups conducting those operations.
WBRZ's Investigative Unit found the operation has brought in tens of millions of dollars to an area where household income sits at just over $60,000 a year, about 25 percent lower than the national average.
The six-month long investigation revealed that ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have been operating out of England Airpark since 2014, with activity increasing dramatically during the last six months.
Using public records, the WBRZ Investigative Unit calculated that England Airpark received at least $6.2 million in the last year from ICE air operations alone, based on leases ($142,769.93), fuel taxes ($2,039,218.08) and landing fees ($4,092,429.76). That figure does not include other leases currently under negotiation with the federal government, or a $12 million commitment from private contractor The GEO Group for new construction or more than $19 million in federal grants awarded for airport improvements.
When WBRZ shared those calculations with airport officials, they did not dispute the numbers.
"Well, yeah, it's more than that."— Ralph Hennessy, Executive Director, England Economic & Industrial Development District, when asked if the airport made tens of millions from DHS activity
Hennessy is the executive director of the England Economic and Industrial Development District, which owns and runs the airport. He confirmed the revenue WBRZ shared with him but said the airport has financial obligations to meet.
"It's got to happen somewhere," Hennessy said. "The state of Louisiana says this is a permissible business that can be here. My board has said, okay, we're good with this. They've approved the leases. They've approved the operating permits. And therefore, that's one of the businesses, you know, it's we can't ignore the fiduciary responsibility that we have."
The Money Behind the Hub
WBRZ's public-records calculation of England Airpark's ICE-related revenue — last year alone
Revenue Sources
* Does not include leases under negotiation, GEO Group's $12M construction commitment, or $19M+ in federal airport improvement grants.
Private Contractors Operating at the Airport
The president signed a bill into law earlier this month giving the deportation effort a $70 billion boost for the remainder of his time in the White House. The current administration has set a goal of deporting one million people a year.
Many of the publicly available federal documents related to DHS and ICE spending in Louisiana are redacted, making it difficult to determine exactly how much federal tax money goes to deportation operations at Alexandria Airport.
A New Funding Surge
A newly signed federal law gives the deportation effort a $70 billion boost. With Alexandria already processing 46% of all U.S. ICE deportation flights, the region is positioned to absorb — and profit from — an even larger share of that spending.
What Louisiana Leaders Are Saying
Elected officials and advocates weigh in on the economics and ethics of the deportation hub
"We call it Louisiana lockup, because what does Louisiana have to offer? Prison. It's a place where you go to lock people up. Even the language we use, even the language that our leaders use, is about what we are promoting, what we do, what we give, what we set out to the world is locking people up — that is our main business."
When asked whether that was a black eye for the state, Lopez said: "To this day, I agree it's a black eye. I don't think that necessarily our leaders view it as such."
"If it was done the right way, I would feel better about it. But it's not. It's just picking people up, putting them on planes and taking them to places they've never been. You know, how humane is that?"
"It's really a shame that our great state has become the face of such a misuse of power, such a strategic misuse of power, sending some 4,000 flights into a small Louisiana airport in just six months. And rack up the dollars of how much that's costing to move people from one end of the earth to our great state, Louisiana."
"Instead of talking about our beauty, our culture, our wildlife, our history. We want to be known for this. I don't think so. It's not a good look."
Deportation and Development — Side by Side
In May, all of this moving of human cargo happened in the rain, while just steps away a separate celebration was held at the same airport. Gov. Jeff Landry and other state and local officials gathered to announce a $3.6 billion investment by Applied Digital Corporation — a new artificial intelligence factory campus in Rapides Parish promising more than 400 jobs.
When asked about critics who say Louisiana needs more investments like the Applied Digital deal rather than operations that rely on moving people, Landry defended the deportation facility.
"Thank God for that ICE deportation facility for all these years and think we got opportunities like that. Remember, things like this can't happen in a vacuum. It happened because we've worked to build economic progress in every economic project actually builds upon another one."— Gov. Jeff Landry, defending the deportation facility at Alexandria Airport
Referring to critics of this policy of profiting off moving thousands of deportees through Louisiana, the governor said: "These are people that consistently want to look for rain, where there's plenty of sunshine."
The WBRZ Investigative Unit made numerous attempts to reach the White House and other Louisiana U.S. representatives, including both sitting U.S. senators. None of them responded to requests for an interview or comment about the growing ICE presence in Louisiana.
Methodology
Revenue figures for England Airpark were calculated by the WBRZ Investigative Unit using public records, including published landing fees, fuel tax rates, and lease agreements obtained through records requests. Figures represent ICE air operation activity only and do not include all DHS-related revenues, leases under active negotiation, The GEO Group's $12 million construction commitment, or more than $19 million in federal airport improvement grants. Airport officials reviewed and did not dispute WBRZ's calculations.
