It was great to work with Michela and the brilliant Behind the Money team this week to share our reporting on ICE.
Find it in your podcast app below:
25.02.2026 19:57
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It was great to work with Michela and the brilliant Behind the Money team this week to share our reporting on ICE.
Find it in your podcast app below:
the oldest adage in journalism is “follow the money”
new in the FT:
An absolutely shocking story with brilliant reporting from Jim here:
As @washingtonpost.com international & local correspondents, we have risked our lives, side by side, because we believe reporting from the ground serves the public good. To choke that engine of brave, committed colleagues would be devastating. If you value our work, tell Jeff Bezos to #SaveThePost.
A city under siege: Minneapolis reels after another killing ft.trib.al/sdWQun9
I think this is the most important article I've written for a while: a trip to Sudan to report on the UN's refugee agency.
Battered by Trump's cuts and western retreat, can humanitarianism survive?
as.ft.com/r/f137508d-d...
Our latest on the Epstein files (and a rare "Boston Logan airport" byline):
In late 2020 a Chinese man called Guan Heng travelled to Xinjiang with our BuzzFeed map of detention facilities to provide ground truth for our work - he provided the first corroborating evidence for many sites.
He escaped to the US - then ICE detained him.
www.wsj.com/world/china/...
By all reports its not going... great www.semafor.com/article/12/1...
Since I’ve had a few people ask, I’ll note: our story isn’t behind a paywall! All you have to do is sign up for a (free) FT account, and you can access this — and also 5 other great stories every month.
Eye scans, licence plate readers, spyware: technology used to catch criminals and terrorists is being repurposed to fulfil Trump's pledge to deport 1mn undocumented migrants this year. Critics fear it’s the thin end of the authoritarian wedge.
An #FTEdit thread on America’s new surveillance state 👇
Thousands of contracts and documents outline the contours of DHS’s surveillance capabilities: geolocation, facial recognition, DNA testing, eye scans, spyware, licence plate cameras, credit reports and more. AI tools cross-reference datasets, while mobile apps give field agents information at their fingertips. At the same time, the proliferation of data brokers and digital, “open-source” intelligence has made surveillance easier than ever. Unlike the government programmes revealed by Edward Snowden over a decade ago, DHS has not needed to build extensive in-house capabilities — vendors now offer sweeping tools at relatively low cost.
An investigation by @peter.andringa.me worth reading that also serves as a reminder of a well-known yet always uncomfortable truth: OSINT tools used for accountability (geolocation, facial recognition, data cross-referencing) are embedded in ICE’s deportation machinery.
Former officials say that criminal investigators (and tools) have been directed to go after immigrants — potentially leaving other crimes unaddressed. Meanwhile, internal privacy and civil liberties oversight has been sidelined, leading to an increased risk of their misuse.
NEW: We took a deep dive into ICE's data dragnet: the data brokers, biometrics tools, and license plate readers powering Trump's deportation effort. Some of the contracts are for tools previous administrations deemed too intrusive.
End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled on.ft.com/47FBigb
Asked whether the FT’s calculations on his family’s profits were broadly accurate, Eric Trump said the true figure was “probably more”.
www.ft.com/content/2ea2...
@jburnmurdoch.ft.com today on how the broader slopification of social media has led to an almost 10% drop in time spent on platforms worldwide. Except in the US, where consumption of "extreme rhetoric, engagement bait and slop" has continued to rise.
This is amongst the best reported stories about the current state of ICE Air. Must read.
If you hit the paywall here, you can try searching the headline on Google and clicking there. Our paywall has complex logic based on the number of stories you've read and where you've clicked from... and ultimately it helps us pay for this work. (But also, we want people to read it!)
ICE plans to 6x its current budget for immigrant transportation and deportations. The money offers a potential windfall for a few contractors and charter airlines — some with close ties to the Trump campaign. Yet the system is already under strain, with significant concerns for detainees' safety: 🧵
You can also read the other stories in our series, "deportation dollars."
On Folkston Georgia, the site of a new immigration processing facility, set to become the largest in the country: on.ft.com/4fVPt4F
On the growing industry of private detention centres : ig.ft.com/us-immigrati...
Many more details (and visuals) in the full story:
This reporting was a team effort with @inari-ta.bsky.social, @okr.bsky.social, Stefania Palma, and Molly Taylor.
A graphic showing four examples of routes taken by long, multi-stop deportation flights. They range from 16 hours to 26 hours, not including the return journey, traveling to Nairobi, Kenya; Santiago, Chile; and Buenos Aires, Argentine with 2-3 other stops between.
We also spoke to a federal air marshal seconded from his usual job to work for ICE. He said staff often worked 24 to 30 hours on multi-stop flights, without much rest. He also raised concerns about evacuating chained detainees.
“If we had a water landing, God forbid, they’re all going to drown.”
A triptych with three images captured by an Avelo flight attendant on a 2022 deportation flight. The first shows a plane with purple "Avelo" text. The second shows two ICE staff counting sets of handcuffs and chains. The third shows two ICE staff escorting a chained detainee up the stairs into the plane.
Avelo is the only passenger airline also operating for ICE, drawing significant public criticism and boycotts.
We spoke to two former employees who raised concerns and say they were fired as a result. One flight attendant told us he feared for the safety of the chained detainees in an emergency.
A chart titled "More than half of GlobalX's revenue now comes from ICE." It shows the company's global revenue by source, with the share of revenue from ICE gradually growing from 0% in Q1 2023 to 58% in Q2 2025, as total revenue grows from about $32mn to $61mn.
CSI subcontracts flight operations to charter airlines like GlobalX. In it's most recent quarterly filing, GlobalX revealed that 58% of revenue comes from ICE flights, on 11 of its 19 planes.
In an earnings call this month, its CFO said "We feel there’s demand for significantly more passengers.”
Allen Weh frowns on stage as he concedes a race for New Mexico governor in 2010.
Deborah Weh Maestas poses for a selfie with Chris Christie at the 2016 Republican National Convention.
The founder and CEO of ICE's main contractor, CSI Aviation, spoke at a Trump rally in 2016 and hosted one at his hangar in 2024. CSI's president (& Weh's daughter), Deborah Maestas, signed docs as a "fake elector" in 2020. Both were appointed to Trump WH advisory committees last term.
ICE plans to 6x its current budget for immigrant transportation and deportations. The money offers a potential windfall for a few contractors and charter airlines — some with close ties to the Trump campaign. Yet the system is already under strain, with significant concerns for detainees' safety: 🧵
Was about to post the same but you’ve beat me to it!
I’ve been using volta.sh lately… which is still like screaming into the void, but in Rust (so at least it’s fast)
When Ollie writes about spies and puzzles, you know it’ll be a must-read. This is one to enjoy with your coffee this weekend:
