Independent ICE Flight Tracker Marks 5,000th Detainee Flown Out Of MSP

By Madison McVan, Minnesota Reformer

August 19, 2026

On the hot tarmac of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Tuesday afternoon, a man in a gray sweatsuit slowly climbed the steps to board an Eastern Airlines flight bound first for Alexandria, Louisiana, then El Paso, Texas.

He was chained at the ankles, wrists and stomach — and he was the 5,000th immigrant detainee shipped out of Minnesota’s flagship airport since November, according to independent tracking.

Nick Benson watched from the top floor of an airport parking garage, two cameras with zoom lenses trained on the plane, recording video as 14 men and two women boarded the flight in chains.

One of the women struggled up the stairs, leaning on a worker in a bright yellow vest for support. This was the 147th “ICE Air” flight — planes shipping detainees on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement — Benson had observed since he began tracking deportations in November.

The database he built late last year has provided some of the most accurate, timely information to the concerned public during Operation Metro Surge, which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has described as the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history. (Benson later checked his data against data obtained from Homeland Security by the Deportation Data Project and estimated that his margin of error was fewer than one person per flight.)

In January and February, at the peak of the federal operation, Benson watched three flights per day take off, filled with detainees, typically bound for large detention centers in the South.

Since Operation Metro Surge wound down, ICE is back to a regular twice-a-week flight schedule, Benson said. His work remains the same: tracking flight schedules using open-source information, lugging his camera equipment to the top of the parking garage, filming as the detainees are brought up the stairs onto the plane, then heading home to update his database.

Benson ran for a seat on the Burnsville City Council, but lost the election on Aug. 11. It’s a good thing he lost, he said — he was spread too thin.

“I ran as myself, and if the electorate didn’t like it… that was their decision,” Benson said.

Benson is a member of Minnesota 50501, the state chapter of the progressive organization behind the massive “Hands Off” and “No Kings” protests that emerged during President Donald Trump’s second term. The organization pays for his parking garage fees.

Minnesota 50501 is among the nearly 20 organizations investigated by the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice of being involved in a conspiracy to impede and assault federal agents during Operation Metro Surge.

An undercover agent attended a meeting of Minnesota 50501 at Augsburg Park Library in Richfield on Feb. 2. Around 60 people were in attendance, including Benson. The undercover agent’s report — included in a court filing in the case of 15 Minnesotans charged in the alleged conspiracy — mentions volunteers handing out whistles and literature about various roles available to people who wanted to protest ICE.

It also describes a “heavy-set male” — name redacted — who “introduced himself as monitoring deportation flights leaving the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.”

Benson, according to the agent, “bragged that there were only 19 people that got onto deportation flights yesterday, when in the past there were hundreds per day.”

Benson said it was strange to see himself described by an undercover agent, and that other than the use of the word “bragged,” the notes were accurate.

“There was nothing nefarious going on there,” Benson said. “It’s all just so profoundly ridiculous, that they’re going after us.”

Benson has no plans to stop monitoring the flights — unless the state Legislature passes a bill to mandate that the boarding process for immigration flights be livestreamed and publicly available. (This already occurs at Seattle’s Boeing Field.)

Benson’s state representative, Rep. Kaela Berg, DFL-Burnsville, introduced a bill in the 2026 legislative session that would do just that. The bill gained the maximum number of co-sponsors — 35 DFL lawmakers signed on — but it didn’t advance.

Benson has heard from the families of people who were detained, who were grateful that someone cared enough to watch over the immigrants as they were shuttled to camps before, in most cases, being deported.

“It’s the most important work I’m ever going to get a chance to do,” Benson said. “And I’m looking forward to not having to do it anymore.”

Outside on the tarmac, workers packed lengths of chains into the back of the convoy vans to be used on the next round of detainees.

Two men board a flight from one detention center to another Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. Flight data activist Nick Benson recorded the 5,000th person to board such a flight since he started recording in November of 2025. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer) Note: the strange appearance of these photos is caused by heat warping the atmosphere.

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell..