NEW: Meet the private-equity firm -- and its billionaire immigrant CEO -- making millions off some of ICE's cruelest deportation flights. After a five-month investigation, my story for @motherjones.com: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Post
These Omni ICE trips include the removal of dozens migrants to Ghana, a country they have never been to, and the transfer deportation of legal asylum seekers back to Russia and Iran, via Omni flights to Egypt, Qatar and Kuwait. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
I spoke with a forensic pathologist on the risks of shackling for long periods -- excruciating pain, bruising, cuts, permanent nerve damage, and a "very high risk" of developing blood clots that could become deadly. She described these flights as torture. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Dozens of migrants on Omni ICE flights may have been shackled for more than 73 hours in October and more than 80 hours in December, leaving some elderly deportees too weak to walk. Flight data backs this up. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
So here's the rub: Dozens of Stonepeak's investors are public-employee retirement funds, including many in blue states. And the human rights abuses happening on Omni's ICE flights would probably violate a lot of their ESG policies -- IF THEY KNEW ABOUT THEM.
107 reposts217 likes
There's a lot more in the story, including the account of a Maryland mother of four deported to Vietnam on an Omni plane in November. "I felt like I was less than an animal." Please read it. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
I will post an update with more info on Stonepeak's investors, Omni's January ICE flights, and the migrants I talked to for this story, to my newsletter later today. You can subscribe here: gillianbrockell.ghost.io#/portal/
Thank you, @motherjones.com, for carrying this story, and especially to @clinthendler.bsky.social for the deft editing on a piece with a million moving parts. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Here is the update, with info on how to help the recently deported people in the story, and which blue/swing state public funds are invested with Stonepeak. gillianbrockell.ghost.io/more-on-omni...