'It’s inhumane' – Officials, human rights advocates, readers react to ICE flights from RIC
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The volume and frequency of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights from Richmond International Airport this year, detailed in a Henrico Citizen investigation last week, has caught some airport officials and board members by surprise.
At the regularly scheduled monthly Capital Region Airport Commission meeting Sept. 30 that largely was devoted to the airport’s growth, Vice Chair Tyrone Nelson, who represents the Varina District (the home of the airport) veered briefly from the planned agenda to express concern about information reported in a recent Citizen article that detailed ICE flights from the airport.
“I've got my personal feelings about deportation efforts that are being done for political clout," Nelson said to the CRAC. "Not everyone that’s being whipped up into planes and [being put in] chains are criminals that are doing harm to the United States of America. I think it’s wrong and inhumane. That’s my feeling about it, but as a commissioner, I do think that something of this magnitude, we really should know what’s going on.”
At least 80 “shuffle flights” this year have originated from RIC, traveling to a federal detention hub in Alexandria, Louisiana, according to Human Rights First, which is monitoring the flights that have spiked since the Trump administration has pursued an unprecedented mass deportation agenda.
There were 32 deportation flights from RIC during the same time span in 2024, according to HRF records.
CRAC owns and operates Richmond International Airport. The commission directs the growth, operation and business activities of RIC and “works tirelessly to ensure it continues to be an affordable option for local, regional and out-of-state travelers,” according to its website.
At Tuesday's meeting, Nelson said the airport had an obligation to keep its 14-member commission informed of deportation flights because of the human rights concerns.
“I had not heard anything about ICE [deportation] flights out of the Richmond Jet Center, and I had gotten a lot of questions, comments and concerns. I have my own concerns about being on the airport commission and not [knowing],” said Nelson, who requested that officials from fixed-base operator Richmond Jet Center, which is facilitating the ICE flights at RIC, attend the next commission meeting to provide details about those flights.
“When we had discussions with the FBOs, I heard nothing about this, and this was going on last year. So, I think we need to know what’s going on,” Nelson said.
“To be honest. I don’t know what activities are going on along those lines,” CRAC chairman Charles S. Macfarlane (founder of strategic advisory and investment firm Macfarlane Partners) replied to Nelson. “I would assume if the jets are here, it’s the FBI or other federal services that are getting fueled.”
Dina Weinstein, Community Vitality Reporter
CRAC President and CEO Perry Miller said he would report to the CRAC about ICE deportation activities at the body’s meeting next month.
The rest of Tuesday's meeting proceeded according to its agenda, as the commission passed proposals previously approved by the CRAC finance and audit committee (including signing on Frontier Airlines, which kicks off routes to Atlanta and Denver this month; expanding space for UPS; renewing a contract for the Martin Air FBO; and including the QubicaAMF bowling company in the airport’s Foreign-Trade Zone).
Fairfield District Supervisor Roscoe Cooper, one of Henrico's other three representatives on the CRAC, told the Citizen last week that he was not aware of the ICE flights at the airport either and that he intended to learn more.
The other two county representatives on the commission (Three Chopt District Supervisor Misty Roundtree and Bobby Ukrop), as well as local and state congressional representatives, have not yet responded to requests for comment.
ICE also has not responded to email and Freedom of Information Act requests for more information about the numbers of flights as well as the people, carriers and contractors involved in them.
Shrouded in secrecy
After the CRAC meeting, officials acknowledged the reality of ICE deportation flights at RIC.
“It’s not new,” said Miller. “It’s a change in volume.”
Miller said the Richmond airport is neither informed nor able to offer input on the use of the facility by ICE or a contractor.
“We are federally obligated to follow the laws. The federal government, whoever's doing the ICE flights isn't disclosing to [media]. They're not disclosing to us either,” Miller said.
RIC cannot pick or choose who uses the airport, according to RIC spokesperson Troy Bell.
“But I can understand a perspective like Rev. Nelson mentioned because, personally, he has some concerns. It's possible to do both. And that's what some of the members have to do right now,” Bell said.
The details of the ICE flights are difficult to track even from the airport side; staffers said they don’t track flights utilizing the FBO’s private terminals. However, according to airport statistics, the number of enplaned “charter and other” flight passengers (2,864) is up 50% this year. Charter flights are just 1% of RIC’s market share. It is unclear if the ICE deportation flights are counted among them.
The Richmond Air Traffic Control tower tracks all flights that arrive at and depart from RIC, but the person who answered the call button Tuesday morning to the gated building from a reporter inquiring for clarity about the ICE flights pointed back to the CRAC or the Federal Aviation Administration and disconnected the phone.
Bell said that ICE flights tend to be airplanes with the same tail number showing up “all the time, even if it won't report to you or me who owns the plane.”
Even when airport staffers input the ICE-contracted airplane identification numbers – if they are provided – Bell said, information systems that track flights show the carriers as “unknown.”
Ownership information for the “Tyson" ICE flights (an identifier frequently used for the flights and one that is most commonly associated with President Trump's personal plane, perhaps as a nod to former boxer and Trump supporter Mike Tyson) are not available on sites such as FlightAware, adding another layer of secrecy to the government-funded flights.
'Unprecedented' quick movement of people
The secrecy also is a concern to Sophia Leticia Gregg, an immigrant rights attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, who was struck by the extent of the ICE deportation flights emanating from RIC as reported by the Citizen. ACLU VA is focusing on “the rampant and indiscriminate arrests of non-citizens in Virginia specifically, and the conditions that they face when they're in detention, and their lack of due process” Gregg said.
Gregg views the spike in deportation flights a result of the increase and what she termed disproportionate enforcement in the Washington, D.C. and Virginia area.
“We're seeing large numbers of arrests happening here. This is another downstream result of that and the entire dehumanization and inhumane conditions in which ICE puts people into,” Gregg said.
The frequent flights facilitate the ramped-up enforcement and rapid transfer of people out of the jurisdiction in which they are living, in Gregg's opinion as a way to thwart any litigation and challenges to the legality of their arrest, and to get them down south as quickly as possible to the Fifth Circuit.
“The movement of individuals quickly is unprecedented from our view,” said Gregg, who has communicated with clients who had been transported to the Alexandria, Louisiana airport detention centers. “The concerns about the treatment of individuals is accurate, as has been described by our clients and the experiences that they've had, the shackling, the chaining of them, the overcrowding, the lack of food or water while they're being moved around on these flights or generally transferred from facility to facility.
“It’s our view that the conditions in which people are suffering as a result of these flights and transfers is because of ICE. It's because of the federal government. It's Department of Homeland Security's custody and control. Their conditions and their abuses suffered are a result of the Department of Homeland Security's neglect or intentional treatment.”
Gregg has heard of people in ICE detention who are shackled for days at a time.
“We're hearing of people who might be taken from one facility in Virginia shackled in four-point restraints, where they might be just waiting on the bus to get on the plane in those shackles for hours at a time,” Gregg said.
“Then they board the flight, then they might be taken to Alexandria, [Louisiana], not even to deboard. The plane may then be flown to another location for another hours-long flight, all while being shackled, being provided minimal food and water during that entire process. And, depending on the flight plans, for wherever DHS is taking them to, it could be 24 hours from one facility to the next, and during that entire period, they are shackled completely.”
Detained people that Gregg hears from have told her that they are not given access to counsel during any transitory period, she said.
“They're oftentimes not given access to use the restroom as they need or given sufficient food during that period,” Gregg said.
ICE officials have not yet responded to the Citizen's requests for comment.
Reid: 'We ALL must obey the law'
Richmond Jet Center president and CEO Michael Clarke sent a statement to the Citizen this week to clarify the company's role in the ICE deportation flights, indicating that it doesn’t decide what air carriers the company serves.
“Richmond Jet Center provides critical services such as fueling, deicing and repairs for commercial airlines and general aviation customers, including corporate and charter aircraft, flying to and from Richmond," Clarke wrote. “Our team also provides services for military aircraft and other federal and state agencies that utilize the Richmond International Airport. As a small, family-owned business that has proudly served RIC for nearly 80 years, we remain focused on safely providing the highest-quality service to the airport and all of its customers.”
Some reactions by readers and followers of the Citizen to its initial report last week focused on moral issues, while other comments took a political tenor.
Facebook comments varied in opinion.
“Oh no. . . here right under our noses. . . who knew,” wrote one respondent, adding vomit emojis.
“Let’s go ICE!” wrote another.
Wrote a third: “Alternate story title: 'Law enforcement uses airport.'
“This is what we voted for. Law and Order,” wrote another.
Even John Reid, the Republican candidate for the statewide lieutenant governor role left a comment on the Citizen's Facebook page.
“We ALL must obey the law,” Reid said. "If the people who are so upset about the flights really cared they’d be raising money for legal help for their illegal friends. It is very important that everyone be put on notice: the old days of living here without documents if you are not a citizen are over. We do not have to apologize for that.”
One person who agreed with Reid emphasized the need to fix the immigration laws “so we can attract the best of the world to the U.S. We have always been made greater by immigrants bringing in skills and education we need.”
Dina Weinstein is the Citizen’s community vitality reporter and a Report for America corps member, covering housing, health and transportation. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.
