ICE was escorting a man who had agreed to leave the U.S. onto a commercial flight from Seattle to New York so he could connect to India. The officers bypassed the boarding gate process, and walked him onto the Alaska Airlines flight at the next gate that was going to Sitka, Alaska, instead. Flight attendants told them it was the wrong plane. They ordered crew to board him anyway, even though he reportedly wasn’t on the manifest. Then ICE re-detained the man when Alaska Airlines brought him back to Seattle – instead of letting him continue home to India. This happened on May 31, 2025, but is just now coming to light. And I can’t even. I have literally lost my ability to even. The passenger was Rakesh Rakesh, now 25, who had been held for months at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. He had initially pursued asylum but finally gave up, and voluntarily agreed to return to India at his own expense to avoid a deportation order on his record. This request was granted by an immigration judge. Since this was voluntary departure, he was supposed to travel like a normal passenger with no onboard escort, no handcuffs, and no shackles. ICE officers were just supposed to walk him onto the aircraft. But officers did not take him through the normal gate. They used airfield access, brought him up a stairway from the ramp and onto the jetbridge at the entrance to the aircraft. Gate agents weren’t notified. And they went up onto the wrong jetbridge. ICE should have checked in with an airline agent. That would have let them know it was the wrong flight. Flight attendants did let them know. Inexplicably, they did not care. Once the flight was airborne, flight attendants alerted the captain. The captain then told Rakesh what had happened. He was scared because he’d been told he was only allowed to go back to India. The captain took him to the crew hotel, got him a room, and organized the flight back to Seattle the next morning and onto New York. But when Rakesh arrived in Seattle, ICE refused to allow him to continue on the rebooked itinerary to New York and India. They took him back into custody, to the Tacoma detention center. He went on a hunger strike for a few days after returning to detention. The captain kept in touch with him and visited him at the detention center. An immigration attorney overhead the captain explaining the story, and took the case pro bono because it was so insane. Rakesh was finally allowed to leave the country after 16 additional days in detention. Seattle Airport Atrium The man was voluntarily leaving. ICE never had to hunt him down, convince him, subdue him, or fly him on a charter. He had given up his asylum claim, had court permission to depart, and had paid for his own flights. ICE didn’t just put him on the wrong flight. They did it because they bypassed procedure. They knew they’d done it. And they allowed him to be unescorted in Sitka, Alaska. He returned voluntarily to leave the country, and then ICE would not let him go. (HT: Paddle Your Own Kanoo)