HR7172-119

What This Bill Does

The TRACK ICE Act makes immigration-enforcement aircraft activity more visible. Private aircraft owners and operators lose eligibility for FAA aircraft-registration or privacy withholding programs when an aircraft is operated by, under contract with, subcontracted for, or on behalf of ICE or CBP, used for detention, deportation, or transport of people in DHS custody for immigration enforcement, and supported by federal funding or financial assistance. The bill also requires the DHS Secretary to publish accessible flight data within 72 hours after each DHS, ICE, CBP, or Coast Guard operation that transports detained people for immigration enforcement. Required data include departure and arrival date and time, airport ICAO codes, ICE Air mission designation, aircraft registration, ICAO aircraft identification, the number of detained people boarded or deplaned at each location, nationality, sex, age group, family composition, and type and quantity of restraints such as handcuffs, shackles, or full-body restraints.

Who Benefits and How

Immigration oversight organizations, journalists, researchers, civil-liberties groups, immigrant families, and congressional oversight staff benefit from faster public information about ICE Air and related detention or deportation flights. Communities monitoring immigration enforcement benefit from aircraft-registration visibility and 72-hour operational disclosures. Detainees and their families may benefit indirectly when flight routes, transfer counts, demographics, and restraint use become easier to track.

Who Bears the Burden and How

ICE, CBP, DHS, Coast Guard, private aircraft operators, charter companies, and federal contractors must disclose aircraft registration and flight details that may previously have been withheld. DHS must build and maintain a public data process with demographic, family-composition, and restraint-use fields for each covered flight within 72 hours. Operators serving ICE or CBP may lose privacy-program protections and face public scrutiny. Agency staff must collect accurate data across flight legs and custody transfers.

Key Provisions

• Bars registration privacy withholding for private aircraft used in federally supported ICE or CBP immigration detention, deportation, or transport missions.
• Requires DHS to publish covered immigration-enforcement flight data within 72 hours.
• Requires departure and arrival times, ICAO codes, ICE Air mission designations, aircraft registrations, and aircraft identifiers.
• Requires detained-person counts by boarding and deplaning location.
• Requires demographic, age-group, nationality, sex, and family-composition reporting by flight leg.
• Requires disclosure of restraint type and quantity used on covered flights.