Riots and Hijackings: The Reasons Behind ICE’s Use of Cuffs and Shackles on Deportees

The recent uproar among liberals concerning President Donald Trump’s border strategies focuses on the fact that some migrant offenders have been restrained and shackled during flights back to their home countries.

India raised objections when a C-17 transport landed in New Delhi carrying 104 restrained deportees. Meanwhile, Colombian President Gustavo Petro sparked a diplomatic incident by turning away the first flight of deportees from the U.S. due to many being shackled with leg restraints.

“A migrant is not a criminal and should be treated with the dignity all human beings deserve,” Petro asserted indignantly on social media. “We will welcome back our compatriots on civilian airlines, not subjected to the treatment of criminals.”

What is notably absent from this backlash is any explanation of why such measures are deemed necessary.

To grasp the rationale for cuffing and shackling, we can recount a recent, true incident that still lingers in the minds of long-serving Department of Homeland Security officials.

This situation unfolded when President Joe Biden resorted to mass air deportations to address a considerable encampment of 15,000 predominantly Haitian migrants that unexpectedly assembled beneath the Del Rio, Texas international bridge in September 2021.

The camp garnered international media coverage, becoming a significant political liability for the Biden administration as the U.S. midterm election season was approaching. It had to be dismantled swiftly.

On September 20, a chartered commercial aircraft departed from Laughlin Air Base carrying a group of Haitian males. Upon realizing they were not being flown to a U.S. destination but rather back to Haiti, chaos ensued.

The deportees wreaked havoc by ripping down window sunshades, damaging overhead luggage compartments, and destroying seat cushions and their stuffing. Pilots locked themselves in the cockpit as they braced for the mayhem.

This incident set off a series of attempted hijackings, attacks on ICE officials, and insurrections on the ground in Texas, according to media reports. Once on the tarmac in Port-au-Prince, many of the Haitians attempted to reboard the aircraft, only to be blocked by a Haitian security officer.

Then, the mob surged again, attempting to hijack another incoming flight that was carrying women and children from Del Rio.

Some men assaulted the pilots and insisted on being flown back to the U.S., with others physically attacking and biting three ICE agents aboard the flight. Haitian security ultimately restored order on the tarmac, though it was a significant challenge.

The initial deportees sent cellphone footage of the disorder to peers and family in Texas who, unaware of the deportations, were getting onto white government buses destined for Laughlin Air Base.

As one plane was about to take off from the Texas airbase, two Haitian passengers leaped from their seats to confront ICE agents, demanding the flight be cancelled. This action resulted in a delay. Another revolt erupted on a second flight.

According to the Washington Examiner, Haitians assaulted their bus drivers, forcing them out and then driving some distance away before jumping out of the vehicle. In one case, detainees kicked out a window, resulting in the escape of 22 individuals.

In a separate incident, Haitian detainees revolted and took over a transport bus heading to San Antonio, forcing it to stop before fleeing. ICE search teams eventually apprehended most of the escapees.

This series of events prompted DHS to revise their procedures to what we see today. This is not a concept introduced by Trump; rather, the Biden administration decided to enhance flight security by adding more officers, installing protective barriers around bus drivers, and—crucially—shackling some adult passengers during transport.

The central lesson from this somewhat overlooked narrative is that cuffing and shackling adult deportees serves as a preventive measure designed to avoid disturbances 40,000 feet in the air and ensure the safety of accompanying ICE personnel.

Todd Bensman is a senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies.