USA Sends Flight with Deported Nicaraguans from Miami
While the Trump administration uses new airports to send Nicaraguans, the Florida governor wants the military to deport migrants.
HAVANA TIMES – A plane carrying 110 Nicaraguan deportees from the United States landed on the night of Monday, May 12, 2025, at Managua International Airport, according to US government sources.
The aircraft departed from Miami International Airport, marking the first deportation flight carrying Nicaraguans to depart from that city.
Between January and May 2025, the United States has deported at least 1,184 Nicaraguans on ten flights—eight of which departed from the Alexandria International Terminal in Louisiana, and one from Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas.
All the flights have been operated by Global X (Global Crossing) airline, one of six companies subcontracted by “Classic Air Charters,” which holds contracts with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Additionally, deportation flights for Nicaraguans usually arrive in the country every 15 days, typically landing on the first and third Thursday of each month in the morning. However, the last two flights have arrived on Wednesday and Monday, respectively.
Nicaraguan Deportees in Guantánamo
The flight from Miami was direct to Managua, so it did not make a stop at the US Guantánamo Naval base in Cuba, where the previous three deportation flights carrying Nicaraguans had stopped.
According to US government sources, out of the 1,184 Nicaraguan deportees, a reported 93 passed through Guantanamo.
In April, there were three deportation flights from the US carrying Nicaraguans that stopped at the Guantanamo naval base—on April 3, 17, and 30—according to a report by Thomas Cartwright, who has been tracking US deportation flights since 2020. He is part of the NGO Witness at the Border.
The three flights departed from Alexandria, Louisiana, stopped in Guantanamo, and then continued to Managua, according to the report.
The flight from Miami, Florida, is the ninth deportation flight carrying Nicaraguans that the US has sent during the first months of the Trump administration, according to an analysis by CONFIDENCIAL.
Florida Proposes Military Deportations of Migrants
While the Trump administration is using new terminals to deport Nicaraguans, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis presented a migration plan to the Trump administration on May 12, 2025. The plan proposes using members of the Florida National Guard as judges to deport migrants and allowing the state’s Highway Patrol to conduct independent immigration raids.
The governor’s proposal asks the federal government to authorize the use of the Florida National Guard’s Judge Advocate General Corps—a branch of military justice—as immigration judges “to help expedite the legal processing of immigration cases.”
DeSantis also revealed that 100 agents from the Florida Highway Patrol have already been deputized as US Marshals through the 287(g) agreement, allowing them to enforce federal court orders and “remove dangerous criminal foreigners.”
“What we have now with the Highway Patrol is that they can carry out immigration operations completely independently of the federal government, and there’s no one else in the country doing this,” he said at a press conference in Tampa.
One in five Florida residents is an immigrant, with about five million foreign-born people living in the state, according to the American Immigration Council.
But Florida has been a leader in enforcing Trump’s immigration policy. DeSantis has approved state laws that ban sanctuary cities, impose fines of up to $5,000, and suspend or remove officials who fail to comply with these laws.
As a result, more than 100 government agencies and all Florida counties have signed 287(g) agreements, in addition to dozens of cities, including Coral Gables, Hialeah, Miami Springs, West Miami, Key West, Orlando, and Doral.
“Operation Black Tide”
Governor DeSantis cited “Operation Black Tide” as an example of his anti-immigration efforts. It was the largest immigration operation ever conducted in a single US state, resulting in a record 1,120 migrant arrests from April 21 to 26, 2025, in Florida. Seven local agencies collaborated with ICE during the operation.
“‘Black Tide’ was a model special task force where these agents, now part of the Florida Highway Patrol, worked together. They can carry out operations, detain illegals, and do everything an immigration officer would do, up to the point of processing them for deportation,” the governor explained.
DeSantis also shared the plan he submitted to the Trump administration to contribute to new migrant detention centers and expand apprehensions.
He asserted that “Florida will be the leader in the fight to enforce immigration law.”