Asked about the primary purpose of the charter flights, ICE officials said the goal was to move detainees into facilities with more space for social distancing. “ICE transfers detainees due to the operational demands of the detention network. “This has resulted in the transfer of detainees from facilities with larger detention populations to facilities with fewer detainees. There had been 5,670 cases of the virus reported inside ICE facilities as of Thursday. The second reason, he told the judge, was the federal requirement to have detainees aboard any ICE Air flights used to transport agents.

Source: Washington Post September 11, 2020 15:05 UTC