‘Bodies are washing up’: Horrifying conspiracy suggests ICE are carrying out ‘death flights,’ but is there any proof to the claims?

The Trump administration is still detaining and deporting people without due process. In fact, there are reportedly 59,000 immigrants currently being held by ICE and nearly half don’t even have a criminal record. Now a disturbing theory has emerged on TikTok which suggests the government is making these people disappear in a horrific way.

Numerous creators on the popular app have made videos sharing the conspiracy. They claim that ICE is taking prisoners and flying them far out into the middle of the ocean before opening the doors of the plane and throwing them into the dark depths of the sea. 

It’s terrifying to think of dying in such a cruel way, but it’s not entirely unheard of. Numerous governments throughout history have allegedly carried out “death flights.” One of the most notorious cases was during the Argentine dirty war where somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 people were supposedly murdered in this way.

Is there any proof the U.S. government is carrying out death flights?

While the topic is receiving a lot of attention online, particularly on TikTok, many have called creators out for “fearmongering.” The Trump administration is sending people to brutal prisons in El Salvador without due process, that is bad enough, we shouldn’t distract from the real issues unless there’s some solid proof that these death flights are actually occurring.

So what proof do these conspiracy theorists have? Well it seems one of the most compelling pieces of evidence are the bodies which are washing up on shore in Spain. People are flown off of U.S. soil in shackles and bodies shackled together are washing up in Spain, Some people think these dots are connected.

While the bodies washing up in Spain are real there’s no evidence to suggest they are U.S. deportees. An article from Snopes has already debunked the theory suggesting the bodies were more likely to be people migrating from Africa. What’s more, the images of deportees being taken away in shackles comes from January, these bodies appeared in June.

Other evidence

You may be wondering if there is any more evidence to back this up, well there isn’t a lot. One person posted a clip of a helicopter circling an ICE detention facility. The poster claimed that someone had been thrown out although this isn’t shown on camera. It also doesn’t line up with the rest of the claims which state people were thrown out in the middle of the ocean.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson has dismissed these recent claims as she responded in an email, “This claim is so stupid and obviously false it hardly dignifies a response.” While the claims are almost certainly just people with an overactive imagination, it speaks volumes. Trust in the Trump administration is evidently so low that people actually believe this is possible.