Twin Falls ICE flight observers record more than 500 detainees flown out of Magic Valley airport

Around mid-day on a recent Tuesday in Twin Falls, a small plane landed on the tarmac at the Magic Valley Regional Airport but never taxied to the terminal. 

Outside the fence surrounding the airport runway area, a group of five people watched through telescopes and binoculars as three white vans drove onto the tarmac. Around 20 men got out of the vans and boarded the plane as law enforcement oversaw the process, which took just over 30 minutes. 

One man was escorted back off the plane and into a van. 

According to a flight tracker, the plane then traveled to King County International Airport, or Boeing Field, which is located south of Seattle. 

Similar flights, operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, happen every Tuesday and Thursday at the Magic Valley airport.

Shelly McDaniel and her husband Tim McDaniel, who live about 30 minutes outside of Twin Falls, have watched every flight since they became involved in efforts to observe them on May 12. The McDaniels have recorded more than 500 detainees being flown out of the airport since flights began in early April. 

An ICE spokesperson told the Idaho Capital Sun the air operations provide “a network of air transportation to Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) 25 field offices to facilitate the movement of illegal aliens within the United States and their removal to destinations worldwide via air charter and commercial charter services.”

“ICE is committed to the safety and welfare of those in custody throughout the entire transfer and removal process,” the spokesperson, who did not provide a name, said in an email.  

The spokesperson said in the Aug. 12 email that the agency had conducted 20 missions at the Magic Valley airport, also called Joslin Field. The agency’s Salt Lake City Field Office, which oversees Idaho, requests the flights “to support their operations which include the Magic Valley Region.” 

The Human Rights First ICE flight monitor has recorded 33 flights out of Twin Falls in 2026, and three flights out of the Boise airport. No other Idaho cities are listed. 

The federal immigration agency has a $1.8 billion contract with CSI Aviation, a private charter and cargo air transportation company, to operate the flights nationwide, according to federal spending data. 

Airport Manager Matt Barnes told the Sun in an email that the local airport does not have any formal agreement with ICE or CSI Aviation. 

“We are a public use airport that accepts federal grant funds, so we may not discriminate against aircraft operators who can safely operate at our facility,” Barnes said. 

‘I think it’s wrong’; observers watch ICE flights because of due process concerns. Idaho lawmaker says operations enforce ‘rule of law’

Karen Stroder has lived in Twin Falls nearly 30 years and in Idaho her entire life, she said. She got involved in watching the ICE flights through a local chapter of the group Indivisible, a progressive advocacy organization. 

“I think it’s wrong,” Stroder said of the flights. “I don’t think people are getting due process. I think everybody deserves their day in court.”  

Twin Falls resident Heather Muth, who helped found the local Indivisible group, learned from an Indiana chapter member that these flights were happening and that various groups tracked and recorded them. She and other members connected with these groups to learn about monitoring the flights. 

Muth said she and others in the group have since learned these operations previously took place out of the Twin Falls airport, but stopped until operations started in April. 

“What’s new in the last couple of years is just the fact that … these people aren’t getting their due process,” Muth said. 

Maureen Newton of the Burley/Rupert area recently went to the airport to watch a flight for the first time. She said she’d read about the flights and had concerns about it. 

“This is my taxpaying dollars here I’m watching go down the garbage can,” she said, keeping her eyes on the plane as detainees with their hands bound in front of them boarded the plane one at a time. 

Shelly McDaniel records a video of the boarding process for each flight and later takes a screenshot of each person who boards. She and other observers contribute to a volunteer network that tracks ICE flights called Habeas Flight Watch. The goal is to make the information available to attorneys so they can find their clients. 

McDaniel and her husband told the Sun they are supportive of people with criminal convictions being deported, but their concern is that the detentions and deportations happen too quickly for the court process to finish. Shelly McDaniel said she 

“I know of people that have been taken on a Sunday, and on Tuesday they’re on a plane,” Shelly McDaniel said.  “… there’s just no way they’re even able to present their case in court.”

Twin Falls Republican state Rep. Clint Hostetler told the Sun in an email he’s supportive of the flights and argued that due process is being followed.

He said he supports “the rule of law, and that includes enforcing our nation’s immigration laws.”

“My understanding is these operations prioritize individuals who have already gone through the legal process and received a final order of removal, it also includes people with criminal convictions, public safety concerns, or no valid legal status to remain in the country,” Hostetler said. “This isn’t a new or extraordinary policy, it’s the law being applied.”

He said he understood that the flights could be “unsettling to some in our community, but failing to enforce the law isn’t fair to the people who came here the right way, or to Idaho taxpayers.”

“My focus as a representative is on what’s best for Idaho families and communities,” he said, “and that includes a secure, lawfully enforced immigration system.”

Attorneys must file a Habeas petition in court with jurisdiction before detainee is moved 

If an attorney is going to be able to stop a detention before someone is deported and get a chance to argue their client’s case in court, they often must obtain what is called a habeas corpus petition. 

Habeas petitions allow people to challenge their detention in court. 

Twin Falls attorney Brian Tanner said attorneys for detainees must file for a habeas in a court with jurisdiction over where the detainee is located. 

“You have to know immediately where they are, because you have to provide notice to the district court that you are filing habeas so that they don’t send them out, or you have to get them before they leave,” Tanner said. 

If the petition is filed in time and someone is flown out anyway, that person has to be returned, Tanner said. 

Shelly McDaniel said she’s seen at least one person leave on a plane and return later. 

Prior to 2025, those who were apprehended by federal immigration authorities in the interior of the United States and who hadn’t committed a separate crime typically had the ability to get a bond hearing and avoid detention. 

Tanner said before the flights began, a bus with the area’s detainees would leave on Wednesdays and eventually take them to an immigration court in Utah. Tanner could often secure his clients’ release before they left. 

However, the U.S. Department of Justice under the Trump administration has changed its policy and began using a federal law typically only used for people who are caught while crossing the border or who just crossed the border, which allows them to be held without bond. 

He said the no-bond policy reinterprets how immigration has been enforced for “decades and decades and decades.” 

This new policy has been challenged and, at the end of July, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel of judges ruled that the government couldn’t withhold bail. Other circuit courts in other regions have had mixed rulings regarding this policy, with some upholding it and others blocking it, Stateline reported. 

Tanner’s frustration with the recent major changes in the system have led him to limit how many immigration cases he’s taken. He’d previously practiced immigration law for nearly 20 years. 

“Immigration is constantly changing in so many different ways. The president has an influence. The courts are basically interpreting laws in different ways. It’s always moving,” Tanner said. “So we get a different president, but I’ve never seen anything like this.” 

ICE flight observers helped someone find detained family member, hope to help more

McDaniel said she recently saw a post on social media about someone trying to find their family member after he was detained in Idaho Falls. McDaniel reached out to ask her what he was wearing when he was detained and shared some photos with the person that matched the description. 

McDaniel used the screenshots of detainees boarding flights and was able to help to find the family member near Tacoma. The person who posted was then able to try and find a lawyer in the area. 

“It was very nice to know we were able to help them,” McDaniel said. 

Muth, the Indivisible leader, said the plan is to try and keep monitoring and let people know what’s happening at their local airport. 

“I think it’s always good to hear what everyone thinks about them, and to be able to have civil discourse, to talk about it,” Muth said. “… we do notice people are either one way or another. So they’re either for the flights and they’re happy that it’s happening, or they’re just extremely upset. And there can be a lot of emotion on both sides.”