Protestors gathered on Saturday morning outside the Richmond International Airport to oppose and call attention to the airport’s role in ICE detainee transfers and deportation flights. Immigration enforcement flights out of Richmond have increased sharply over the last two years and organizers are concerned that most people are not aware they are happening.
According to ICE Flight Monitor, a project of Human Rights First that tracks immigration enforcement flights using publicly available aviation data and other sources, 132 enforcement flights departed Richmond through the end of August 2026 compared to128 flights recorded during all of 2025.
Before that, Richmond’s numbers have been 55 flights in 2020, 54 in 2021, 48 in 2022 and 46 in 2023.
The increase isn’t unique to Richmond.
In the report linked HERE, there were 1,363 domestic transfer, or “shuffle,” flights, nationwide in July, the highest monthly total since independent tracking began in 2020 and a 75 percent increase over July 2025. These flights move people in ICE custody between detention centers and deportation staging facilities within the United States, rather than directly deporting them to another country.
By July, Richmond had become a regular part of that network. ICE Flight Monitor reported flights through Richmond three to four times per week.
Organized by RVA Indivisible, RVA ICE-Scream, Indivisible Central Virginia and First Unitarian Universalist Church, the demonstration called attention to RIC’s role in the federal immigration detention system.
For RVA Indivisible member Paul Fleisher, however, the story started with what he could see happening at the airport himself. “It took me a while to figure it out, but I did see these planes parked over there on the far side of the field, and what appeared to be prison buses that are also driving up to that same location,” Fleisher said. “Eventually [I] put two and two together.”
Fleisher said he first noticed the activity sometime in the spring. After researching what he was seeing, he began following information available through ICE flight trackers.
L, an organizer with RVA Indivisible who asked to remain anonymous, said Fleisher’s observations prompted the group to look more closely at what was happening at RIC. “One of our members lives over by the airport, and in his commute to and from things around town, he noticed airplanes loading people from white vans in the back corner of the airport,” they said. “He started taking pictures of them and realized that they were ICE flights.”
“Then we, from there, looked up ICE flight trackers and confirmed that they were in fact ICE flights,” they said. “These are not deportations. These are flights where they take detainees from where they live and move them multiple times around the country to make it difficult for their family to locate them, as well as difficult for them to get legal representation.”
For Fleisher and RVA Indivisible, part of the problem is that many people in Richmond don’t know any of this is happening.
“I think people are not aware that these ICE flights are happening,” Fleisher said. “In fact, I talked to a local business person who works right down here in Sandston, within view of the airport. They had no idea.”
“Our feeling is that the folks in Richmond, people in Richmond, would not approve of this if they know about it,” he added.
Fleisher eventually contacted the Capital Region Airport Commission, which operates Richmond International Airport, about the flights and discovered its regular monthly meetings do not have a regularly scheduled public comment period.
“That surprised me and kind of struck me as undemocratic,” Fleisher said. “Most other public boards, like the Board of Supervisors, have scheduled public hearings, comments, public comment periods usually at the beginning of their meetings.”
According to RVA Indivisible, Richmond International Airport President and CEO Perry Miller responded to Fleisher’s concerns in a letter, saying the commission does not participate in the ICE flights but has contractual obligations with the federal government.
L doesn’t believe that ends the discussion.
When asked what authority the Airport Commission could actually have over federal agents using RIC, they acknowledged the complication before making the group’s position clear.
“It’s tricky because, of course, they have no authority to stop federal agents from using their airport,” L said. “However, that is for legal flights. We argue that these flights are not legal. They are removing people from across state lines without their permission and without due process, which sounds an awful lot like kidnapping. So DHS is probably breaking the law with these flights.”
“These flights are not legal; they’re just like drug smuggling flights,” they continued. “If the Airport Commission is knowingly enabling illegal flights to happen, then they should be working to stop that.”
For Kimberly, attending the protest is about refusing to ignore what she believes is happening to people caught in the immigration detention system.
“I believe that activity and doing something is antidote to anxiety, and I’m anxious about everything that’s going on in our world right now,” Kimberly said. “So I’m out here trying to stand up for people who can’t stand up for themselves, especially these precious children who are in detention.”
She also believes immigration enforcement has begun to fade from public attention. “It’s not so outward,” Kimberly said. “The raids are not out there being publicized as much as they were. I think that’s unfortunate.”
When Kimberly learned how many flights have moved through Richmond, she said the number caught her off guard. “I’m not surprised. I know every airport is, but the number did kind of shock me,” she said. “I moved here from Oklahoma to kind of get away from that, and so I was a bit surprised because I did move to an area that’s, you know, less conservative than where I came from.”
And when asked whether she still believes showing up at a protest like Saturday’s can make a difference, Kimberly didn’t hesitate.
“Absolutely, absolutely,” she said. “You just can’t stay silent when things like this are happening. You can’t.”
“I have white privilege,” she continued. “I have the privilege of who I am to be able to stand up for those who don’t.”
All photos by R. Anthony Harris
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