ICE Deportation Flight Assault Goes Unreported By Agency

Note: The following investigation contains mentions and details of assault.

Camilo Alexis Rincon was wearing full restraints — handcuffs, waist chains, and leg irons — when he was allegedly shoved and hit by guards on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removal flight from Harlingen, Texas, to Bogotá, Colombia, on December 13, 2022. 

After deplaning, Rincon was taken to a health facility with wounds on his face, chest, and back, according to an internal email obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO). The email detailed an investigation into the incident led by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), though the full investigation has not been made public.

It was the sort of incident that should have been reported through official channels as a “use of force” by both ICE and the private company supplying the flight’s security guards, according to CRCL’s email. But neither entity reported it as such. 

Revelations about the two-year-old assault follow international concerns about inhumane treatment of immigrants on ICE deportation flights, an issue at the center of a January diplomatic rift between Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro and U.S. President Donald Trump. “The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals,” Petro wrote in a late-night tweet posted on January 26. “The United States must establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them.”

Akima, the federal contractor whose subsidiary supplied the guards on the 2022 flight, is also facing heightened scrutiny with another subsidiary running detention efforts at Guantanamo Bay. Akima has more than 40 subsidiary companies, and is itself a subsidiary of NANA Regional Corporation, an Alaska Native Corporation that ranks among top federal contractors.

A Miami, Florida, immigrant detention facility run by an Akima subsidiary has come under fire recently for multiple migrant deaths and overcrowding. There were five deaths in that Miami facility from 2017 through June 2024 — the second highest number in any ICE detention center during that time — according to an analysis by a coalition of advocacy groups. ICE detention facilities run by Akima companies have faced critical audits and a civil rights complaint over poor conditions. 

Yet Akima continues to hold lucrative and growing federal immigration contracts, recently acquiring a $685 million contract to continue running that same Miami detention center until 2034. 

DHS’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties investigates civil rights violations by ICE and other agencies and issues policy guidance. In the 2022 case of Rincon’s reported assault on an ICE deportation flight, the CRCL investigation found “sufficient evidence” to substantiate his allegations that there had been an excessive use of force, noting that the onboard nurse had documented the incident in their “Flight Nurse Mission Report.” In the email obtained by POGO, CRCL gave ICE “informal advice” to retrain contractors on use-of-force policies and complete a use-of-force report for the incident. 

(Informal advice given by CRCL is not part of the more formal recommendation process, and does not require the same level of official response, according to CRCL. It is unclear why this incident did not go through the formal recommendation process.) 

CRCL itself is on the current administration’s chopping block. Several news outlets reported in March that the CRCL office was being gutted with widespread layoffs.

Neither ICE nor Akima have responded to multiple emails from POGO about this incident, including questions about whether they ultimately followed CRCL’s advice. Both entities also failed to respond to questions from The Guardian related to their February investigation into human rights abuses at Akima-run ICE facilities. 

Researcher Thomas Cartwright has spent the past five years tracking ICE Air flights for the advocacy group Witness at the Border. He said he hasn’t had much luck getting a response from ICE either.

Cartwright isn’t surprised that the 2022 incident went unreported. “There’s no transparency around any of this,” he said.

Cartwright argues that the lack of transparency by ICE is “a pattern and a practice,” explaining the challenges he’s had getting answers from ICE. “So why would they ever feel like they needed to have transparency about abuse of a migrant on an airplane?”

DHS has a long track record of concealing and withholding information from the public. POGO sued DHS in 2018 to access CRCL reports on conditions within ICE detention facilities. POGO ultimately won the lawsuit following a nearly five-year legal battle and shared the reports in a 2023 investigation. 

“Excessive Force Against a Noncitizen in Full Restraints”

Rincon said that he was pushed by guards when he refused to remove his hoodie while attempting to walk to the airplane’s bathroom in full restraints, according to the internal email. 

Rincon said that after he fell with his back against the seat armrests, Akima contractors hit him on the head, chest, and back. DHS’s civil rights office opened an investigation into Rincon’s complaint that included reviewing the flight nurse’s report (which documented the “altercation”), communicating with ICE Flight Officers in Charge (who said they didn’t witness the incident), and attempting to access flight video surveillance (there was none). 

CRCL also referenced the incident in their annual report for fiscal year 2023 in less detailed terms than the internal email obtained by POGO. The report described it as an alleged use of “excessive force against a noncitizen in full restraints.” The report said Rincon had “a diagnosis of contusions to his face, chest, and back despite having no medical conditions when he departed the U.S.”

Colombia and other countries have raised concerns about human rights conditions on ICE flights, specifically calling out the United States’ use of shackles on migrants. The Brazilian government argued in January that ICE flights were exposing migrants to “degrading treatment” and violating the terms of the country’s repatriation agreement with the U.S. Likewise, Indian leaders raised alarms in February about the alleged use of handcuffs and ankle chains on long flights to the country, with one migrant stating they had been shackled and unable to move for 40 hours. 

ICE’s official policy is to “fully restrain” migrants on domestic and international ICE Air flights, with an exception for people who are pregnant or post-delivery. The current administration has advertised their use of shackles on deportation flights, even posting a video to the White House’s X account in February showing immigrants being chained up before boarding an ICE flight with the caption “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.” 

A February feature on ICE’s website said, “ICE Air Operations personnel follow best practices when it comes to the security, safety and welfare of the aliens returned to their countries of origin.” 

Cartwright said it’s important to remember the vast network of domestic ICE transfer flights when considering the length of time individuals may be in shackles, explaining that “some of these routes are five-city routes.” He pointed to the lack of visibility of what’s taking place inside ICE flights. 

“I don't think people really understand the scale and scope of the entire operation,” Cartwright said.

“Assaults Falling Through the Cracks”

Migrants may face heightened barriers and disincentives to file complaints about abuses happening on ICE flights, calling into question how many other incidents like Rincon’s have gone unreported. 

“At least in the United States, [someone in ICE detention] could get to a lawyer, you could get to an advocate,” said Cartwright. “I think in [the person’s] home country that becomes far, far more difficult.”

Border security expert Adam Isacson agrees. Isacson is the Director for Defense Oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America, a research and advocacy organization that works on human rights issues in the Americas. Much of Isacson’s work at the organization has focused on Colombian peace and security efforts. He said there aren’t great incentives for immigrants to pursue justice against ICE once they’ve been returned to their home country. 

Regarding the 2022 incident, the CRCL email noted that the ICE flight officers in charge, who said they did not witness the incident, are responsible for overseeing the rear cabin crew and detainees. They are also supposed to report any “issues pertaining to the flight,” the email said. The flight officers who were interviewed by CRCL said that “striking a detainee in full restraints (handcuffs, waist chains, and leg irons) would generally not be considered an objectively reasonable use of force,” according to the email.

Isacson asked, “Given that this incident wasn’t reported as an excessive use of force — despite the alleged assault occurring while the immigrant was in shackles — what does that say about the likelihood of other assaults falling through the cracks?”

CRCL officials gave ICE a number of suggestions in response to the 2022 alleged assault, according to the internal email. These included using body-worn cameras for officers on ICE flights, retraining Akima guards on ICE’s use of force standards, completing use of force incident reports for the alleged assault, and referring the incident to ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility for further inquiry. 

ICE issued new guidance in November 2023  to require body-worn cameras on ICE-chartered removal flights, with full implementation planned by the end of September 2025. The directive was removed from ICE’s website in late February 2025, though it is still available in the ICE FOIA library. ICE has not responded to questions from POGO asking if this directive has been rescinded, or to what degree it has been implemented. 

Whether ICE took CRCL’s other advice about this incident is yet another question that remains unanswered.