On a recent Saturday morning, sheriff’s deputies from Plymouth County escorted 76 men from the jail onto a bus and several vans. All were being held for the federal government, on alleged immigration violations.
Their destination: Hanscom Field, an airport in Bedford used mainly for corporate jets, charters and other private planes. The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office has been making a lot of these van trips, according to interviews and records obtained by WBUR — delivering hundreds of people to federal agents at Hanscom, where they’re flown to states with larger detention centers, often far from Massachusetts.
As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests a growing number of people in this state, Hanscom has emerged as a frequent transfer point. And the Plymouth County sheriff has a hand in helping ICE as it moves detainees around the country…