'I cried': Flight attendants describe inhumane conditions on deportation planes

[LiberalArkie]

April 1, 2025 7:44AM ET

Reporting Highlights

--- Unexpected Role: Flight attendants were told they would fly rock bands, sports teams and sun-seekers. Then Global Crossing Airlines started expanding into federal deportation flights.
--- Human Struggles: Some flight attendants said they ignored orders not to interact with detainees. “I’d say ‘hola’ back,” said one flight attendant. “We’re not jerks.
---”Safety Concerns: Flight attendants received training in how to evacuate passengers but said they weren’t told how to usher out detainees whose hands and legs were bound by shackles.

These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.

The deportation flight was in the air over Mexico when chaos erupted in the back of the plane, the flight attendant recalled. A little girl had collapsed. She had a high fever and was taking ragged, frantic breaths.

The flight attendant, a young woman who went by the nickname Lala, said she grabbed the plane’s emergency oxygen bottle and rushed past rows of migrants chained at the wrists and ankles to reach the girl and her parents.

By then, Lala was accustomed to the hard realities of working charter flights for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She’d learned to obey instructions not to look the passengers in the eyes, not to greet them or ask about their well-being. But until the girl collapsed, Lala had managed to escape an emergency.

Snip

https://www.rawstory.com/i-cried/

[Scrivener7]

1. That is a harrowing article.

It sounds like if the flight attendant hadn't said something, they wouldn't have let EITHER parent go to the hospital with her.

What have we become?

[C_U_L8R]

2. The horrors of the Trump regime.

I'm afraid this is just the beginning.

[Meowmee]

3. Horrific- I hope they are held accountable for this but have little hope at this point

[Solly Mack]

4. After all is said and done, who will be held accountable?

America's track record for accountability for government's inhumanity, abuses, and crimes against people says no one will be.

And people wonder how we got here. Snort.

When you know you'll never be held accountable, then why bother following the law at all?

If a government can torture people, even torture them to death, and get away with it, then what's stopping them from doing anything and everything else?

Nothing.