ICE stops sending detainees out of Mass. airport, starts flights out of N.H.

Federal immigration authorities are no longer using Hanscom Field in Bedford to transport people facing immigration violations.

Previously, after people in Massachusetts were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal authorities, the agency often flew them from Hanscom to detention centers, mostly in southern states.

An ICE spokesman confirmed it moved the flights from Hanscom to an airport in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, this month.

ICE didn’t provide a reason for the shift, but it comes after the flights have received scrutiny.

WBUR reported in June that the Plymouth County Sheriff's Office, which operates the only jail in Massachusetts to hold people for ICE, transported nearly 600 people to Hanscom between December 2024 and May of this year.

Most of the transports took place after President Trump was sworn into office. The agency said those figures would not include any additional detainees transported directly by ICE or its contractors.

Several members of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission, which represents local communities around the airport, expressed concern about the flights at a meeting last month, after the WBUR report. Protesters have held small demonstrations against ICE and a company reportedly used to refuel aircraft there.

The Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates Hanscom, declined to comment on the move. Massport said it was not notified when the flights occurred. Hanscom is a general aviation airport that primarily serves private planes and charters, rather than regularly scheduled commercial airline service.

The Concord Bridge previously reported that ICE had stopped using Hanscom.  And Wednesday, WMUR in New Hampshire reported ICE has since ramped up flights at Portsmouth International Airport.

The shift would likely add about an hour of driving time for people transporting detainees from the Plymouth County jail or ICE's offices in Burlington. However, the Portsmouth airport is closer to where detainees are held in Berlin and Dover, New Hampshire.

Two members of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission said Thursday they didn't know why ICE shifted the flights, but wondered if it was because of the publicity and protests.

"They didn't consult us when they started coming in, and they're not consulting us now that they're going out," said Margaret Coppe, the commission chair. "It may have been the publicity, it could have been a business arrangement."

Regardless, Coppe said she was glad to see the change. The Lexington resident said a number of people in the area were concerned about the ICE flights.

"I wish they weren't doing it at all, but I am relieved that they're not doing it out of Hanscom anymore," she said.