Penn State's State College Regional Airport has seen a surge in ICE charter flights used to transfer detainees between facilities, rising from just two flights in 2025 to 107 through July 2026, according to Human Rights First data. Most flights shuttle detainees to and from Alexandria, Louisiana, a major deportation staging facility, and the airport sits about 40 minutes from the Moshannon Valley Processing Center. Immigration experts say the no-notice 'shuffle flights' are used to isolate detainees from lawyers and family, discourage legal challenges, and wear people down, while ICE says the transfers address bed space and removal logistics. Penn State says it has no direct contract with ICE and is in the process of transferring the airport's operations to Centre County, though a resident group has organized to oppose the flights.