Shackled Immigrants Targeted for Deportation Are Being Flown in and Out of Kansas City International Airport

Missouri’s role in the Trump administration’s campaign to deport millions of immigrants has increased dramatically, up 200%.

But it’s not primarily through highly publicized incidents where immigrants have been taken into custody at their workplaces, in apartment parking lots or after check-ins at Kansas City’s immigration court.

It’s through Kansas City International Airport.

At least once, but sometimes multiple times a week, flights are leaving or arriving at KCI with detainees in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Handcuffs, waist chains and leg irons are used on many ICE flights.

Most of the flights are chartered with private companies through subcontractor agreements, collectively dubbed “ICE Air.”

Immigration-related flights in and out of Missouri, primarily through KCI, increased more than 200% in the first year of the Trump administration, according to data compiled by Human Rights First, which produces the ICE Flight Monitor report.

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Nationwide, ICE Air flights reached record levels in March, according to Flight Monitor data released April 14.

There were 1,794 flights documented across the U.S. in March, marking a 122% increase from March 2025.

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The latest Flight Monitor report tracked 130 ICE Air departures from KCI during 2025, the first year of the second Trump administration, and 33 departures during the first three months of 2026.

The report does not note how many people were on each flight, or their identities.

ICE Flight Monitor tracked 106 flights with Kansas City as the destination in 2025, and 21 such flights through March.

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But the most dramatic surge noted by the ICE Flight Monitor reporting is a 132% increase in domestic shuffle flights in the first year of the Trump administration.

Those flights involve transferring people around the U.S. from county jails and detention centers to staging sites for deportation.

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