Chicago’s progressive alderpeople turned an infamous parking meter privatization deal into leverage against Omni Air International, the charter airline handling ICE’s longest removal flights. Their pressure forced Stonepeak Partners to divest Omni before winning approval to buy the meters.

By then, Omni had largely stopped flying for ICE. Since June 17, flight data shows only two trips, one to Mexico on July 7 and another to three Southeast Asian countries on July 28.

A previous Mother Jones investigation described Omni’s decade long virtual monopoly on long range deportation flights, enabled by its willingness to carry migrants shackled at the ankles, wrists, and waist for up to 48 hours. One 2019 trip to Asia cost the federal government $1.8 million.

One notorious flight carrying Somali deportees returned to the United States after ICE agents and contracted guards beat passengers so severely that two immigrants required surgery. Former Omni attendants later described suicidal passengers in full body straitjackets, crying children, and guards ignoring safety instructions.

ATSG, Omni’s publicly traded parent company and the operator of Amazon’s Prime Air fleet, announced its sale to Stonepeak the day before the 2024 presidential election. The transaction closed in April 2025, after which Omni’s ICE charters nearly quadrupled.

Omni then became central to ICE’s third country removals, sending immigrants to nations where they had no ties. One man said he and dozens of others were shackled for more than 73 hours en route to Laos and Vietnam, while another group endured 82 hours.

From February through mid June, Omni planes made at least 76 removal stops, including 10 confirmed third country removals. Eleven trips lasted between 32 and 68 hours, but the pattern shifted as Chicago officials focused on Stonepeak.

The opening came from Chicago’s 2008 sale of its parking meters under a 75 year contract that undervalued them. The buyers reportedly recovered their money within a decade, while residents faced some of the country’s highest parking rates.

Chicago must also pay the owner a costly “true-up” fee whenever spaces are removed from service, including for block parties or construction. Those fees have obstructed bike lanes and electric vehicle spaces, and the investor group won millions after suing over a suspension of parking tickets.

The meters went up for sale in 2024. Mayor Brandon Johnson pursued secret negotiations to buy them back, then concluded Chicago could not afford the purchase, leaving Stonepeak next in line.

At a finance committee meeting, Stonepeak’s James Wyper questioned reports about Omni’s flights without presenting evidence. He said contractual obligations prevented him from stopping them, even as flight data showed the operation had already mostly halted.

Progressives repeatedly delayed the vote because the council lacked enough support for approval. They held community meetings, enlisted activists including Kat Abughazaleh, and urged Chicagoans to reject any Stonepeak deal while the firm owned Omni.

Alderman Andre Vasquez framed the campaign as a model: “We hope that other cities will take it as a lesson: We don’t have to bow down [to] the fascist deportation machine.”

On September 15, alderpeople announced a renegotiated deal with lower true up fees, a $75 million pension payment, and 5% profit sharing projected to produce at least $376 million over the contract. It also required Stonepeak to unload Omni.

Omni was sold to newly created OAI Holdings LLC on September 28. The next day, the council approved the parking meter agreement by 46 votes to 3, capping a four month standoff that likely stopped dozens of long range ICE flights.

The airline now faces an uncertain future, with aging aircraft, reported breakdowns, staff departures, and September 8 layoffs across every department. Outside ATSG, Omni must create its own maintenance and training operations or pay contractors at market rates.

Stonepeak is not alone in retreating. Three ICE charter carriers have stopped flying for the agency in the past year, while ICE’s effort to build a deportation fleet has produced no removal flights from its purchased Boeing planes.

The Department of Homeland Security also lacks enough planes to replace the charter fleets, according to the account. Chicago’s victory shows how local monetary power can make cooperation with ICE far more costly, one airline at a time.