Riots and hijackings — why ICE cuffs and shackles some deportees

By Todd Bensman as published by The New York Post

The latest liberal outrage over President Trump’s border policies is the fact that some migrant criminals have been handcuffed and shackled for their flights back home.

India objected when a C-17 arrived in New Delhi with 104 restrained deportees. And Colombian President Gustavo Petro set off a brief diplomatic row by turning back the first US planeload of deportees because many wore leg restraints.

“A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity every human being is worthy of,” an indignant Petro posted on social media. “We will welcome back our fellow countrymen on civilian planes, without a criminal’s treatment.”

Missing from this outcry is any explanation of why this is necessary.

The best way for Americans to understand the case for cuffing and shackling is by retelling the recent true story that isn’t far from the minds of career Department of Homeland Security officials.

It happened when President Joe Biden used mass air deportations to belatedly handle a massive camp of 15,000 mostly Haitian migrants that suddenly formed under the Del Rio, Texas, international bridge in September 2021.

That camp drew international media attention, which made it a major political threat to the Biden administration as the US midterm election campaign season was getting underway. It had to go — and fast.

On Sept. 20, a chartered commercial passenger plane left Laughlin Air Base with a group of male Haitians. Once they realized they weren’t going somewhere in the United States but back to Haiti, all hell broke loose.

The men ripped every window sunshade from their moorings, bent most overhead luggage compartment doors off their hinges. They tore seat cushions off frames, then ripped out their stuffing. They destroyed anything destroyable as pilots cowered at the controls behind locked cabin doors.

That was the beginning of a rampage of attempted hijackings, attacks on ICE agents and mutiny on the ground back in Texas, according to media reports. Once on the Port au Prince tarmac, dozens of the disembarked Haitians tried to storm back onto the plane, but a Haitian security officer blocked the stairwell.

Then the mob stormed aboard and attempted to hijack the second recently arrived flight, this one carrying women and children from Del Rio.

Some men assaulted the pilots and demanded to be flown back to the United States while others attacked and bit three resisting ICE agents on the plane. Haitian security eventually quelled the tarmac violence, but it wasn’t easy.

As one plane prepared to taxi onto the Texas airbase runway, two Haitian passengers bolted from their seats and attacked ICE agents, demanding the flight be aborted. This delayed the flight. Another insurrection broke out on a second flight.

Haitians attacked their bus drivers, according to the Washington Examiner, forcing their drivers off, then drove some distance away and bailed out. In one event, detainees kicked out a window and 22 escaped.

In another incident, the Haitian detainees revolted and seized control of a bus driving them to San Antonio, pulled it over and ran. ICE search parties eventually recaptured most.

That was when DHS changed the procedure to what we see today. This isn’t a Trump innovation. The Biden DHS decided it would not only load all its flights from Texas with extra security officers and put protective cages around bus drivers but — most importantly of all — shackle some adult passengers.

The moral of this broadly forgotten story is that cuffing and shackling adult deportees is a better-safe-than-sorry measure to prevent riots at 40,000 feet and guarantee the safety of accompanying ICE officers.

Todd Bensman is a senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies.

Related Topics:#CenterForImmigrationStudies #NewYorkPost #ToddBensman DeporteesCuffedShackled Ice TrumpBorderPolicies

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Truckers see pay surge as ICE sweeps illegal drivers off U.S. highways

Published on October 13, 2025

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MxM News

Quick Hit:

American truckers say they’re finally earning more per mile as President Donald Trump’s enforcement push clears illegal drivers off U.S. highways. Truckers have reported 50% pay increases on some routes following a surge of ICE activity and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s crackdown on safety and work permit violations.

Key Details:

A trucker on X said his usual Chicago-to-Fargo run jumped from $1,200 to $1,800, crediting the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement for thinning out illegal competitors.
ICE and federal transportation officials have detained or removed illegal drivers in multiple states, with reports of Serbian and Indian drivers losing their commercial licenses after failing to prove legal entry into the U.S.
FreightWaves founder Craig Fuller noted spot rates have risen about 2% despite weak demand, as “bottom feeders” who undercut prices are being “squeezed out of the market.”

Diving Deeper:

As President Trump’s immigration enforcement intensifies, American truckers are seeing something rare in a sluggish cargo economy: rising wages. Across online freight boards and social media, truckers are crediting the administration’s “Compliance Crunch” — a combination of ICE raids and new safety regulations — for clearing out illegal drivers who had been depressing pay rates for years.

One trucker wrote on X that his typical Chicago-to-Fargo route, which paid $1,200 before the election, now brings in $1,800. “Needless to say, I took him up on the offer,” he posted. “Lord do I hope this hangs around a little bit.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been enforcing long-ignored safety and documentation rules, targeting companies that hired drivers without valid immigration status or complete customs paperwork. “We have Americans who’ve been in trucking for 50 years through family businesses,” Duffy told Fox News on October 8. “They can’t do business anymore because you have these illegals coming in, living out of their trucks… they can’t speak the language, and they come in under price — way under price.”

According to reports from The Serbian Times, at least fifteen Serbian drivers have been detained in recent days, and agents have begun seizing commercial driver’s licenses from migrants lacking proof of legal entry. Many of these drivers, primarily from Eastern Europe and South Asia, were able to operate under the Biden administration with minimal oversight — often undercutting legitimate American drivers by accepting lower pay.

Craig Fuller of FreightWaves observed that even though freight volumes remain “anemic,” per-mile spot rates rose roughly 2% as noncompliant firms exit the market. “We are seeing the bottom feeders get squeezed out,” he wrote, adding that most contract carriers haven’t yet felt the wage impact but likely will as enforcement spreads.

Industry experts say nearly one-third of the nation’s freight has been hauled by non-citizen drivers, which trucking analyst Bill Skinner called “not just a safety issue — it’s a national security risk.”

While some corporate logistics networks such as Amazon and Walmart may eventually argue that higher trucking wages could drive up costs, analysts note that the increases are modest and likely offset by fewer accidents, delays, and fraud cases tied to unlicensed or illegal operators.

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$4.5B awarded in new contracts to build Smart Wall along southwest border

Published on October 12, 2025

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem rides an ATV along the U.S.-Mexico border wall in El Paso, Texas, on April 28, 2025. Photo: Tia Dufour / U.S. Department of Homeland Security

From The Center Square

By Bethany Blankley

New contracts to add 230 miles of barriers, nearly 400 miles of technology

Roughly $4.5 billion in contracts have been awarded to expand border wall construction, including adding advanced technological surveillance along the southwest border.

Ten new construction contracts have been awarded through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to add hundreds of miles of Smart Wall in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

“For years, Washington talked about border security but failed to deliver. This President changed that,” CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said. “The Smart Wall means more miles of barriers, more technology, and more capability for our agents on the ground. This is how you take control of the border.”

Border wall map — *Map courtesy of The Center Square*

Scott has championed advancing a Smart Wall border security system for years. A border security system is far more than a wall, he has told The Center Square, it’s an ecosystem.

The system encompasses steel and waterborne barriers, patrol roads, lights, cameras, advanced detection technology, including towers and aerostats, to provide Border Patrol agents with a range of tools to detect and interdict illegal activity.

CBP has published an interactive map to educate the public about the Smart Wall system. The map highlights areas of the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border where wall construction has been completed, where border wall panels or waterborne barriers are under construction, where contracts have been awarded for proposed projects in the design phase or early construction, and planned construction areas that haven’t yet been awarded contracts.

Prior to Jan. 20, 2025, 702 miles of existing barriers had been constructed of primary wall and 76 miles of secondary wall, according to CBP data.

The new plan includes implementing barrier technology along 532 miles of the border where no barrier exists because of unfavorable terrain or remote location. It also includes deploying 550 miles of technology throughout previously constructed barriers, CBP says. Specific areas are also being built out in regions where contracts were previously canceled by the Biden administration.

In California, $483.5 million in taxpayer funding was awarded to BCCG Joint Venture for the Diego 1 Project to construct nine miles of new Smart Wall and 52 miles of system attributes in the San Diego Sector.

An additional $574 million was awarded to Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. for the El Centro 1 Project to construct eight miles of Smart Wall and install 63 miles of system attributes in the San Diego and El Centro sectors.

In California and Arizona, $199.5 million was awarded to Barnard Spencer Joint Venture for the Yuma 1 Project to construct 60 miles of system attributes in the Yuma Sector.

In Arizona, nearly $607 million was awarded to BCCG for the Tucson 1 Project to construct 23 miles of new secondary border wall and 66 miles of system attributes in the Tucson and Yuma sectors.

In New Mexico, $155.1 million was awarded to BCCG for the El Paso 1 Project to replace seven miles of old dilapidated barrier fencing in the Santa Teresa Area of Responsibility with a new Smart Wall. BCCG will also complete 22 miles of system attributes in the El Paso Sector in New Mexico.

Also in the El Paso Sector in New Mexico, Barnard Spencer Joint Venture was awarded nearly $579 million for the El Paso 2 Project to construct 23 miles of new Smart Wall and 81 miles of system attributes.

In the El Paso Sector in far west Texas, BCCG Joint Venture was awarded $850.4 million for the El Paso 3 Project to construct 42 miles of new primary Smart Wall, six miles of new secondary border wall and 46 miles of system attributes.

In Texas, BCCG Joint Venture was awarded $565 million for the Del Rio 1 Project to construct 22 miles of new primary Smart Wall, replace two miles of old barrier wall, and deploy 40 miles of waterborne barrier system in the Eagle Pass Area of Responsibility in the Del Rio Sector.

BCCG was also awarded $364.3 million for the Del Rio 2 Project to construct 10 miles of new primary Smart Wall, 23 miles of waterborne barrier system, and install 10 miles of system attributes in Eagle Pass.

BCCG was also awarded $96.1 million for the Rio Grande Valley Waterborne Barrier Project to deploy 17 miles of waterborne barrier in the Rio Grande River, south of Brownsville in Cameron County in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.

Another $550 million worth of contracts was also awarded to support Smart Wall construction. Additional construction and contracts are expected.

Funding for the projects comes from the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which President Donald Trump signed into law. It also includes some fiscal year 2021 border wall appropriations that were frozen during the Biden administration.

Waivers were also issued by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to expedite construction of nine miles in the San Diego Sector and 30 miles in the El Paso Sector in New Mexico. Both sectors were inundated with record high illegal traffic during the Biden administration.