A deportee was put on the wrong Alaska Airlines flight at Seattle-Tacoma Airport by ICE agents, even after flight attendants warned them that the plane wasn’t going to the intended destination.
The bizarre incident occurred in May 2025 but is only now coming to light after an investigation by the Seattle Times.
Alaska Airlines slammed the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with a spokesperson saying that the “established procedures for this passenger were not followed by ICE.”
In fact, it appears that gate agents were never even informed that the deportee was being put on the plane after the ICE officers used special airside access to bypass the boarding gate.
The flight attendants then attempted to stop the deportee from being put on the wrong flight, but Alaska Airlines says the officers “directed our flight attendants to board him.”
The deportee is Rakesh Rakesh, an Indian national who entered the United States illegally after flying to Central America and then completing the arduous ‘donkey route’ to enter over the Southern Border.
Once in the United States, Rakesh was picked up by ICE and eventually transferred to an immigration removal unit in Seattle. Rakesh initially tried to apply for asylum but gave up his claim and agreed to be voluntarily returned to India.
The planned route that Rakesh was meant to take was from Seattle to New York JFK, from where he was booked on a direct flight back to Delhi.
Instead, the ICE agents put Rakesh on a flight to the remote Alaskan community of Sitka. Once the plane arrived in Sitka, Rakesh had nowhere to go, and the Captain of the Alaska Airlines flight felt so bad that he used his own money to book a hotel room for Rakesh for the night.
The next day, Alaska Airlines arranged for Rakesh to be flown back to Seattle, where ICE was waiting to take him back into custody, where he had to spend a further 16 days before new flight arrangements could be made.
Rakesh had paid for his return flight home with his own money, and, given the fact that he had voluntarily chosen to leave the United States, he was not due to be accompanied by ICE agents on any of the flights.
Nonetheless, the methods chosen by ICE in this case would have easily allowed Rakesh to remain in the United States.
What’s perhaps more troubling, though, is that ICE agents insisted Rakesh be put on a flight even though he wasn’t listed on the flight manifest, and the airline didn’t officially know that he was on board.
According to the Seattle Times, Alaska Airlines has recently introduced new procedures for dealing with deportees on its flights.
Airlines are generally not allowed to refuse deportees on their flights, although accompanied deportees can be refused transport on a case-by-case basis if the flight crew believes they present a safety risk.
