How many migrants were flown by DHS to each major U.S. airport 2021–2024?
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Executive summary
Public, verifiable airport-by-airport counts of migrants flown by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from 2021–2024 do not exist in a single DHS dataset; congressional disclosures and investigative reporting provide multi‑hundred‑thousand aggregated totals and partial breakdowns but stop short of a complete, official per‑airport ledger [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What official DHS data sources publish, and what they do not
DHS’s Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS) maintains monthly enforcement tables and an annual Yearbook that enumerate encounters, removals, returns and other enforcement actions across ports, sectors and modalities, but those products do not publish a public, comprehensive list of “migrants flown to each major U.S. airport” in the interior for 2021–2024 in a single, airport‑level table accessible to the public [1] [2] [5].
2. What congressional documents and reporting have revealed about overall scale
A House Homeland Security Committee release of documents obtained from DHS reported that more than 400,000 inadmissible aliens were processed into the country via CHNV (Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, Venezuelan) parole processes through over 50 airport locations — a congressional assertion based on subpoenaed DHS materials rather than a consolidated OHSS public table [3].
3. Independent analytic and FOIA reporting that provides partial airport signals
Investigative reporting by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), relying on partial records produced under FOIA and committee disclosure, found that Florida airports led interior flight landings with roughly 326,000 migrants through March of a reported period and earlier CIS analysis flagged more than 200,000 people from several countries using direct‑flight parole channels — both findings supply airport‑ or state‑level concentration signals but are not equivalent to an authoritative per‑airport breakdown published by DHS [4] [6].
4. Separate DHS operational statistics that address removals and repatriation (not interior parole flights)
DHS and CBP have published operational totals for removals, repatriation flights, and encounters: for example, CBP noted that ICE‑ERO operated more than 860 international repatriation flights during a specified June–December window and that DHS completed roughly 700,000 removals and returns in FY2024 — figures that speak to returns and repatriations rather than interior parole landings at U.S. airports [7]. ICE’s enforcement dashboards likewise summarize arrests, detentions and removals through December 31, 2024, but do not substitute for an airport‑by‑airport manifest of inbound parole flights [8].
5. Why a precise airport‑level accounting remains elusive
Public sources show two overlapping problems: first, DHS’s publicly posted statistical products do not publish an itemized airport manifest for parole flights to interior airports [1] [2]; second, the disclosures that do exist come in fragments — subpoenaed documents shared with a House committee and partial FOIA results released to advocacy outlets — which allow aggregation estimates (hundreds of thousands) and state‑level concentration claims (notably Florida) but do not present an independently verifiable, complete per‑airport series from 2021 through 2024 in the public OHSS tables [3] [4] [6].
6. Competing narratives, agendas, and what the available numbers actually support
Congressional committee materials and CIS reporting converge on the claim that hundreds of thousands of migrants entered U.S. airports under parole or special programs in the 2021–2024 window and that Florida was a major destination, but those sources have clarified agendas — the House committee sought to document an administration policy and CIS has used FOIA fragments to highlight interior arrivals — so readers should treat the aggregate “>400,000” and the “Florida 326,000” figures as corroborated by document releases and investigative analysis rather than a full official per‑airport census published by OHSS [3] [4] [6].
7. Bottom line and what would be needed for a definitive answer
A definitive answer listing exact migrant counts flown by DHS to each major U.S. airport from 2021–2024 is not possible from the public DHS OHSS tables and yearbooks alone, because the authoritative public data do not include that granular airport‑level flight manifest in one place; the best available public evidence is aggregated: subpoenaed DHS documents and investigative FOIA reporting showing more than 400,000 processed via CHNV and large concentrations in Florida airports [1] [2] [3] [4] [6]. To produce a true per‑airport ledger would require DHS to publish or release the airport‑level manifests or for Congress/FOIA requesters to secure and publish complete, unredacted airport‑by‑airport counts covering 2021–2024.