On Saturday, March 28, a charter deportation flight carrying Russian citizens departed from Alexandria, Louisiana. The passengers were transferred to an EgyptAir flight in Newark, New Jersey, that then departed for Cairo, according to a report by the organization Russian America for Democracy in Russia.
FlightAware data indicated that the deportees arrived at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport on Egypt Air flight 729 at 15:53 local time on Sunday, March 29.
According to Russian America for Democracy in Russia, several dozen Russian citizens from five or six immigration detention centers across the United States were gathered for the flight. Transfers to the detention center in Alexandria began about a week before their scheduled departure.
The organization said the U.S. government also attempted to deport people supported by its “Detentions” project. However, thanks to intervention by human rights advocates, numerous appeals, and coordination with lawyers, those people were removed from the flight and remain in the United States.
The organization also reported harsh transfer conditions, with people transported in shackles, spending many hours without being able to sit down, sleeping on the floor, and waiting for departure in overcrowded rooms. The conditions at the airport in Alexandria were said to be better than during transit.
According to Russian America for Democracy in Russia, Saturday’s deportation flight was the second since the start of 2026. In 2025, The Insider counted at least four such deportation flights removing large numbers of Russian citizens from the United States.
The United States began deporting large numbers of Russian citizens — including asylum seekers who had opposed the invasion of Ukraine and who face repression at the hands of the Kremlin — after Trump’s return to office in January 2025. Upon arrival in Moscow, deportees are questioned by FSB officers. Some have been taken into custody — or even handed military draft notices — right at the airport. According to statistics made public by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 127 Russian citizens were deported from the United States in 2025. Human rights advocates estimate that about 1,000 more remain in immigration detention awaiting decisions.
