BOSTON — Governor Maura Healey has escalated her fight with the Trump administration, firing off a scathing letter demanding an immediate halt to ICE detention flights from Hanscom Field and other regional airports as deportation operations ramp up at a rapid pace.

Healey’s demand follows new research from a human rights group showing that ICE flights out of Hanscom have more than doubled since last year, turning the low-key airport west of Boston into the busiest ICE charter hub in New England. Flights have been happening roughly three times a week for much of the year, according to the research, which tracked a nationwide surge in domestic and international ICE flights since President Trump’s second inauguration.

“This practice must stop,” Healey wrote in her letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons.

Hanscom, which shares runways with Hanscom Air Force Base and sits just minutes from ICE’s Burlington field office, has become a key launch point for moving detainees out of Massachusetts — often within hours of arrest.

“Flying these residents out of state and away from their support systems and legal counsel — often within hours of arrest — is intentionally cruel and purposely obstructs the due process and legal representation they are owed,” Healey wrote.

Critics of the administration argue the flights are used to shuttle detainees to far-off facilities in states like Texas and Louisiana, where immigration courts are seen as less sympathetic. One recent case highlighted in the research involved Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University doctoral student from Turkey, who was arrested in Somerville, driven across multiple states, and ultimately flown to Louisiana — a major ICE transfer hub.

Federal officials, so far, have remained silent. Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor ICE responded to requests for comment.

Healey has made her position unmistakably clear — in stark language and on paper. The flights, however, continue.