{"id":447517,"date":"2026-05-30T13:12:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=447517"},"modified":"2026-05-30T13:13:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:13:00","slug":"guardian-us-illegal-immigrant-deportation-flights-are-worsening-the-climate-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=447517","title":{"rendered":"Guardian: US Illegal Immigrant Deportation Flights are Worsening the Climate Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by<\/strong> Eric Worrall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

h\/t Mumbles McGuirck \u2013 Just in case you thought activists had reached the bottom of the well of climate absurdity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Revealed: huge climate cost of harmful emissions from US immigration flights<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump campaign accelerating climate crisis as officials move migrants to detention jails and deport them from US<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandra Villarreal<\/a> with graphics by Aliya Uteuova<\/a>Tue 26 May 2026 19.00 AEST<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US immigration enforcement flights are producing hundreds of thousands of metric tonnes of climate-damaging carbon emissions as officials shuttle unprecedented numbers of people to detention centers far from home and deport them to countries across the world.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

Donald Trump\u2019s mass deportation campaign<\/a> has spurred at least an 80% increase in such flights year over year, accelerating the <\/strong>climate crisis<\/a> <\/strong>by emitting massive amounts of carbon dioxide, according to data analysis shared exclusively with the Guardian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a staggering increase of all US immigration [enforcement] flights,\u201d including \u201cthe number of flights as well as the locations that the flights are going to,\u201d said Savitri Arvey, director of research and analysis for refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First (HRF), the US advocacy group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s (ICE<\/a>) air operations pumped into the air an estimated 335,876 tonnes (370,240 US tons) of carbon emissions in 2025, up 88% from the year before. And the first four months of 2026 show the federal agency is on track to contribute even more to global heating this year from such flights, the Guardian can reveal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those emissions exacerbate the climate crisis<\/a>, a driver of irregular migration in itself, while polluting the air in local communities used as flight hubs, such as Phoenix in Arizona, El Paso and Harlingen in Texas, and Alexandria in Louisiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/26\/us-immigration-flights-emissions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Its tempting to say something snarky about how much more CO2 would be emitted if the illegals were granted amnesty and were able to live comfortable energy rich lives in the USA rather than being deported to whatever energy poor hellhole they came from, but the claim that immigration flights are impacting climate change is just too ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact of such flights on CO2 emissions is a blip, an accounting error on last year\u2019s expansion of China\u2019s coal capacity. The impact of those flights would not be measurable, by any instrument which could be devised by known technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guardian: <\/p>\n

Deportation and transfer flights generate hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO\u2082.<\/p>\n

Emissions increased 88% in 2025 and are rising further in 2026.<\/p>\n

These flights \u201caccelerate the climate crisis\u201d and harm local air quality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":447519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691843385,691818102,691843384,691818443,691838000,691831504],"class_list":["post-447517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-air-transportation","tag-climate-crisis","tag-deportation-flights","tag-greenhouse-gas-emissions","tag-greenhouse-gas-emissions-ghg","tag-trump-administration","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-ChatGPT-Guardian-US-Illegal-Immigrant-Deportation-Flights-are-Worsening-the-Climate-Crisis.png?fit=1536%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1Sq1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":332185,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=332185","url_meta":{"origin":447517,"position":0},"title":"Climate Policy Should Not Be Used to Determine Limits on Hospital Emissions","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/09\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The turbulence that caused a Singapore Airlines flight to drop 6,000 feet in minutes was blamed on climate change by a hysterical media. Having killed a passenger and injured more than 70 others, the incident was one of the worst of its kind and indeed tragic. However, the connection to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0cardiac-vascular-surgery.jpg?fit=1200%2C814&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0cardiac-vascular-surgery.jpg?fit=1200%2C814&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0cardiac-vascular-surgery.jpg?fit=1200%2C814&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0cardiac-vascular-surgery.jpg?fit=1200%2C814&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0cardiac-vascular-surgery.jpg?fit=1200%2C814&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":312422,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=312422","url_meta":{"origin":447517,"position":1},"title":"UK Guardian: A nuclear plant\u2019s closure was hailed as a green win. Then emissions went up \u2013 \u2018Shuttering of facility raises awkward climate crisis\u2019","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/24\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"When New York\u2019s deteriorating and unloved Indian Point nuclear plant finally shuttered in 2021, its demise was met with delight from environmentalists who had long demanded it be scrapped. But there has been a sting in the tail \u2013 since the closure, New York\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions have gone up.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/00Nuclear-Power-Plant-at-night-ratio-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/00Nuclear-Power-Plant-at-night-ratio-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/00Nuclear-Power-Plant-at-night-ratio-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/00Nuclear-Power-Plant-at-night-ratio-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/00Nuclear-Power-Plant-at-night-ratio-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C683&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":280207,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=280207","url_meta":{"origin":447517,"position":2},"title":"UK Telegraph: The French plan to save the planet? Stop poorer people flying \u2013 Seeking \u2018a minimum price for airfares within the EU in a bid to reduce the number of flights\u2019 to reduce CO2 emissions","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/24\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"UK Telegraph: The French plan to save the planet? Stop poorer people flying\u00a0- Minimum prices for air tickets, proposed by France, will hurt the less well off without doing anything to reduce the number of flights","rel":"","context":"In \"CO2\"","block_context":{"text":"CO2","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0Glacier-themed-airplane-Icelandair-1200x607-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C607&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0Glacier-themed-airplane-Icelandair-1200x607-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C607&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0Glacier-themed-airplane-Icelandair-1200x607-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C607&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0Glacier-themed-airplane-Icelandair-1200x607-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C607&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0Glacier-themed-airplane-Icelandair-1200x607-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C607&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":374821,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=374821","url_meta":{"origin":447517,"position":3},"title":"Reversing the Endangerment Finding: Burying the Union of Concerned Scientists Case Against It","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/11\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Trump EPA is planning to reconsider the 2009 Obama EPA Endangerment Finding (EF) that labeled greenhouse gas emissions as a threat to public health. Here is the first effort by a leftist group against that.","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-co%e2%82%82"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/00Screenshot-2025-04-11-190119.png?fit=1200%2C659&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/00Screenshot-2025-04-11-190119.png?fit=1200%2C659&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/00Screenshot-2025-04-11-190119.png?fit=1200%2C659&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/00Screenshot-2025-04-11-190119.png?fit=1200%2C659&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/00Screenshot-2025-04-11-190119.png?fit=1200%2C659&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":354056,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=354056","url_meta":{"origin":447517,"position":4},"title":"Private Jets, Public Hypocrisy: How Climate Alarmists Just Reinvented Irony","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/12\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Ah, the sweet scent of self-awareness wafting through the hallowed halls of climate orthodoxy. A new article from Nature titled \u201cPrivate Aviation is Making a Growing Contribution to Climate Change\u201d pulls back the velvet curtain on the jet-setting hypocrisy of the ultra-wealthy, and boy, is it rich. Literally. For years,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-co%e2%82%82"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0Sovereign6Desert-Jet-provides-private-jet-charter-flights-and-aircraft-management-resize.jpg?fit=1024%2C794&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0Sovereign6Desert-Jet-provides-private-jet-charter-flights-and-aircraft-management-resize.jpg?fit=1024%2C794&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0Sovereign6Desert-Jet-provides-private-jet-charter-flights-and-aircraft-management-resize.jpg?fit=1024%2C794&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0Sovereign6Desert-Jet-provides-private-jet-charter-flights-and-aircraft-management-resize.jpg?fit=1024%2C794&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":391939,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=391939","url_meta":{"origin":447517,"position":5},"title":"US Carbon Dioxide Endangerment Finding\u00a0Axed","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/31\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Trump administration has announced a plan to scrap a landmark finding that greenhouse gases are harmful to the environment, severely curbing the federal government\u2019s ability to combat climate change.","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-co%e2%82%82"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ChatGPT-Image-29.-Apr.-2025-19_20_27.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ChatGPT-Image-29.-Apr.-2025-19_20_27.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ChatGPT-Image-29.-Apr.-2025-19_20_27.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ChatGPT-Image-29.-Apr.-2025-19_20_27.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=447517"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447526,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447517\/revisions\/447526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/447519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=447517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=447517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=447517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}