As thousands of visitors from around the country pour into Dallas for the opening matches of the 2026 World Cup, a group of faith leaders and immigrant rights organizers are addressing the elephant on the field–the city’s relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The coalition, made up of members from El Movimiento DFW, Clergy League for Emergency Action and Response (CLEAR DFW), North Texas Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and Young Active Labor Leaders (an affiliate group of the Texas AFL-CIO), is specifically concerned with the increased use of the city-owned Dallas Love Field Airport for deportation flights.
A June 1 blog post written by the Rev. Mara Richards Bim, a member of CLEAR DFW, described in detail organizers’ case against the city allowing the ongoing use of Love Field for deportation flights conducted through the private hangar and airline services of Atlantic Aviation. In her post, Bim drew attention to a promotional World Cup countdown ticker on Atlantic’s website, targeted at private aircraft owners looking for a hangar to land in for event festivities. At a press conference hosted by CLEAR DFW on June 10, the Rev. Neil G. Thomas was briefly interrupted by a nearby plane departing overhead from Love Field as he told the crowd that the contradiction of Dallas welcoming an international community to the city while assisting in aggressive deportation quotas of immigrant residents, most of whom have no criminal record, “forces us to ask difficult but necessary questions about who we are as a city and what values we choose to uphold.”
This is not the first time the World Cup has landed squarely in the center of tensions between city leaders and organizers who are concerned that Dallas isn’t doing enough to protect immigrant communities from traumatic family separation or wrongful detainment or deportation. In February, former acting ICE director Todd Lyons confirmed officers would play a role in World Cup security in Dallas and Houston, drawing immediate backlash from community organizers. Two months later, the City of Dallas revised a policy to allow greater collaboration between ICE and local law enforcement after Governor Greg Abbott threatened to pull state funding for essential services. Notably at risk was over $55 million reserved for World Cup public safety in Dallas.
The difference between these past controversies and what’s happening at Love Field, said the Rev. Eric Folkerth, senior pastor at Kessler Park UMC and a CLEAR DFW member, is that the deportation flights are happening outside of the scrutiny of the public eye, despite taking place on city property. “Love Field is owned by all of us who live here in Dallas; it’s owned by the city. We think the citizens should have a moral voice and a say in what happens at our airport,” he told the Texas Observer.
Folkerth also played a major role in the successful effort to oppose an attempt by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to turn a million-square-foot warehouse in Hutchins into an ICE detention center. He said it was that fight that solidified the relationship between CLEAR DFW and organizers from El Movimiento and North Texas DSA. “At Hutchins, we said human beings should not be treated like packages. Now we’re saying to the city, we should not treat neighbors who happen to be migrants trying to make a better life here like hardened criminals. We should not shackle them together and put them on shadow flights.”
The vast majority of data organizers have used to demonstrate an increase in deportation or facility transfer flights out of Love Field is crowd-sourced from a national, grassroots network of “flight verifiers.” Lanie Olmo, a self-described “aviation nerd” and lifelong Dallas resident is one of the people tracking ICE flights on the ground. For months, Olmo said, she and fellow organizer, John Putnam, have woken up nearly every day and driven to a public parking garage near Love Field that provides a clear view of the Atlantic Aviation hangar. “We used our own money to buy long-distance camera lenses. We get the aircraft code, then immediately share it with the national flight tracking community so we know what kind of flight is happening and where they’re taking people,” she told the Observer. By their count, there have been 127 ICE flights out of Love Field this year, a significant increase from any year prior.
In response to a request for comment, a city spokesperson directed the Observer to “contact Homeland Security for a response.” A DHS spokesperson said via email: “ICE conducts flights throughout the U.S. on a daily basis. For operational security purposes, ICE will not discuss ongoing or future operations,” adding that all deportees receive “full due process.”
Putnam said that organizers have made clear to the City of Dallas what their demands are: not to renew the contract with Atlantic Aviation, host monthly meetings with citizen comment for the municipal Department of Aviation, and create an oversight process that would ensure ICE is not moving passengers that have valid asylum claims, habeas petitions, legal permanent resident status, or citizenship through Love Field. “We have pretty much only gotten excuses from the Dallas City Council so far,” Putnam said. “It’s frustrating because this is a city issue, it impacts our neighbors and coworkers and communities. I started tracking flights because I felt like I had to do something, but I’m just a guy with a Prius. We’re asking for the people who were elected to and have the power to do something to take action.”
The post As World Cup Unfolds, Immigrant Rights Organizers Seek a Reckoning over Dallas’ Relationship with ICE appeared first on The Texas Observer.
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