{"id":864,"date":"2026-05-12T12:41:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnnglobalnews.com\/?p=864"},"modified":"2026-05-12T12:41:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:41:27","slug":"first-thing-democrats-express-grave-concerns-over-secretive-ice-deportation-flights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/?p=864","title":{"rendered":"First Thing: Democrats express \u2018grave concerns\u2019 over secretive ICE deportation flights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Letter follows a Guardian investigation into irregular ways the Trump administration was transporting detainees. Plus, top World Cup tickets to retail at almost $33,000<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/info\/2018\/sep\/17\/guardian-us-morning-briefing-sign-up-to-stay-informed\"><strong>Don\u2019t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Good morning.<\/p>\n<p>A group of 40 House Democrats <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/11\/ice-deportation-flights-democrats-letter\">have described \u201cgrave concerns\u201d<\/a> over the Trump administration\u2019s secretive program of deportation flights and demanded that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) address allegations of mistreatment and inhumane conditions on ICE charter jets.<\/p>\n<p><strong>By how much have deportation flights increased under Donald Trump?<\/strong> The number of ICE flights during 2025 has surged by 84% compared with 2024, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/humanrightsfirst.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ICE-Flight-Monitor-US-Immigration-Enforcement-Flights-Report_Dec2025.pdf\">monitoring by human rights groups<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What has Tehran said?<\/strong> Trump\u2019s latest comments came after oil prices jumped again when Iran said there would be no further talks about ending the blockade unless he accepted its terms.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Follow the latest updates<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/live\/2026\/may\/12\/middle-east-crisis-us-iran-israel-donald-trump-ceasefire-peace-plan-latest-news-updates\">our liveblog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/12\/first-thing-democrats-grave-concerns-secretive-ice-deportation-flights\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Letter follows a Guardian investigation into irregular ways the Trump administration was transporting detainees. Plus, top World Cup tickets to retail at almost $33,000 Don\u2019t already get First Thing in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/?p=864\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}