This Family Made Billions on Trump-Branded Condos. Now Their Private Jet Is Taking Shackled Migrants to a Far-Flung African Prison
Israeli-American billionaires Michael and Gil Dezer’s Gulfstream IV plane flew 10 migrants to the tiny African kingdom of Eswatini, flight data shows.
A private jet owned by an Israeli-American billionaire family with close ties to President Donald Trump appears to have been used to fly 10 immigrants to a brutal prison in the tiny African kingdom of Eswatini, according to flight data.
The Gulfstream IV jet was operated by Journey Aviation, a Miami-based charter company that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has previously used to carry out its third-country “deportations” to African countries, but it is owned by Michael Dezer and his family via a shell company. The wealthy often lease their private jets to charter companies part-time to qualify for a huge tax break that Trump signed into law in his first term.
Representatives for the Dezer family firm, Dezer Development, did not respond to questions about whether Journey informed the Dezers about the potential use of their aircraft to expel immigrants to a country to which they have no ties – a move human-rights experts say may violate international law. Journey also did not respond to requests for comment.
The Dezers helped spearhead the concept of “Trump-branded” properties, netting billions on luxury condo sales to a largely foreign clientele via shell companies and offshore accounts, according to The Nation. It is perhaps fitting then that their private jet is being used to obscure from public view the Trump administration’s secret deals to send immigrants to foreign prisons.