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HEY CHICAGO! The city wants to sell your parking meter company to the same private-equity firm that owns Omni Air International, the worst of the worst of ICE's charter airlines. The city council's finance committee is meeting about it TOMORROW. 1/

WHY is Omni the worst of the worst? Because they do all the large-jet ICE removals to Africa and Asia. A) Everyone onboard is shackled at the wrists, ankles and waist for the duration. Sometimes as long as 82 hours. Yes EIGHTY-TWO HOURS. That is torture and can be deadly. 2/

B) Omni has done at least 31 third-country deportations since Stonepeak bought them in April 2025. They've flown hundreds of migrants to countries they've never even been to, including: -South Americans to DR Congo in April -Syrians, Afghans and Iranians to Central African Republic (last week!) 3/

Plus, chain refoulements and third-country removals of legal asylum-seekers with no criminal records to: Cameroon, Ecuador, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Kuwait, Israel, Moldova, Poland, Qatar, Sierra Leone, and Uzbekistan. 4/

A bunch of Omni flight attendants have quit recently because it has gotten so bad. One told me they were on a third-country removal flight to Ghana where ICE-contracted GEO Group guards onboard tied a guy up in a full-body straitjacket, who started screaming, "I'm already dead! I'm already dead!" 5/

What did he do to get WRAP? He asked for his heart medication. Here are some links with info you can take to your aldermen ASAP. First, my Mother Jones story on Omni and Stonepeak from January: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Here is a podcast episode where I talk about the DISHONEST AND DECEITFUL letter Stonepeak sent to your aldermen about Omni's ICE activities. (5:20 to 19:00) podcasts.apple.com/th/podcast/e...

Here's a spreadsheet just for you, Chicago, of all of Omni's ICE flights since Stonepeak bought them, according to public flight data, with each instance of migrants being shackled longer than 24 hours, and all *known* third-country removal/chain refoulement. 8/ drive.proton.me/urls/KCEET2H...

Bona fides: I am a former WaPo staff writer, a former flight attendant, and I now track and report on ICE flights full time. gillianbrockell.com/tracking-all...

Addenda: -Yes, this is a public meeting you can go to. Public comments are usually at the beginning. GO! (I don't live in Chicago!) -Yes, the parking meters were already sold, but the company that owns them can't sell them without the city's permission. chicago.councilmatic.org/event/commit...

If anything, we should protest their sale and block it because it was a terrible deal for the city that prevents bike lanes and shutting down streets for pedestrian-friendly plazas, wholly aside from the sale being to an evil ICE Air private equity fund.

@mayorofchicago.bsky.social’s office has asked me to delete this thread because I misstated that the city is selling the company. In fact, the company is selling the meters, and he secretly torpedoed a winning bid to buy them back and won’t say why. blockclubchicago.org/2026/06/24/w...