Massachusetts Governor orders Signature Aviation to end services for ICE deportation flights at Hanscom Field

Governor Maura Healey is demanding that Signature Aviation end its role in facilitating deportation flights for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from Hanscom Field Airport in Massachusetts.

Signature Aviation provides ground services for pilots, passengers, and crews through a network of 220 locations around the globe. Hanscom Field is one of them. The company arranges hotel rooms, ground transportation, and fuel services for flights.

In a letter to Signature Aviation CEO Tony Lefebvre, Governor Healey urged Signature Aviation to immediately sever ties with ICE and stop providing services that support deportation flights out of Hanscom, including charter operators, fueling aircraft, and facilitating access to the airfield and tarmac.

“You have a choice to either continue profiting from ICE’s unlawful tactics that are depriving people of due process and separating parents from their children, or you can stand with the people and communities you say that you serve,” wrote Healey. “I urge Signature and its owners to stand with our people and communities and cease supporting ICE’s damaging deportation efforts immediately. Enough is enough.”

Signature Aviation is the sole fixed base operator (FBO) facilitating ICE charter flights at Hanscom Field and plays an indispensable role in enabling these deportation operations. Signature Aviation provides the access and logistical support that make these flights possible, including coordinating aircraft services, fueling, and securing access to the airfield. ICE’s reliance on private charter flights allows the agency to rapidly remove individuals from their families, communities, and legal counsel, undermining due process protections. Without Signature’s participation, ICE would be unable to operate private deportation flights from Hanscom Field.

“ICE’s enforcement tactics in Massachusetts and across the country have created widespread fear in communities and raised serious concerns about due process and constitutional protections,” according to a press release issued by Healey’s office.

She has called on ICE to cease deportation flights out of Hanscom and urged private airlines and aviation companies to stop providing charter flights that facilitate these removals.