Human Rights First counted 148 ICE flights at Willow Run Airport from January 1 through September 30, 2026, a 70% increase over the 87 it counted for all of 2025. The number is still climbing.
Advocates say continued traffic could push the 2026 total to at least twice last year’s count. That projection assumes flights continue at the current pace.
Most Michigan traffic carrying immigrants has passed through the airport in Ypsilanti and Van Buren townships, with fewer flights at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus. Human Rights First’s data showed no such flights at Michigan airports in 2024, the final year of President Joe Biden’s term.
The increase comes as advocates press the airport authority to let the public observe and document the operations. The board says it cannot control which operators use its airfields.
The board says federal rules and contracts limit its power over the charters
The Wayne County Airport Authority board voted 7-0 on February 18, 2026, to approve a three-page resolution addressing deportation-related operations. It acknowledged charter and airline contracts involving federal agencies, while saying the authority does not control who uses its public airfields.
The resolution bars airport personnel from assisting investigations, arrests, detentions or prosecutions based solely on suspected or actual immigration violations. It also says the authority will cooperate with law enforcement only within its lawful scope, while safeguarding people’s rights, dignity and safety. The board must still comply with valid court orders, judicial warrants and other legal obligations.
Board Chair Michael Ajami, an attorney who works in the Michigan attorney general’s expungement unit, said the resolution was intended to explain the authority’s limits. “At this point, we can't give (the protesters) what they want regarding stopping the ICE flights,” he said.
Ajami said Federal Aviation Administration rules and grants prevent the authority from directing charter operators to accept or reject particular work. He also said the authority could not knowingly break contracts and risk legal liability by trying to stop federal flights. Its role, he said, is to keep airport operations working and airfields clear.
Advocates cite detainee transfers and contest the airport’s response
Kris Olsson, an Ann Arbor ecologist, began documenting the flights with other advocates in November 2025. She said she recorded about a dozen, using photographs and notes. She described people shackled at the wrists and ankles, led from vans and buses to waiting planes, often on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
On April 8, Olsson said airport authority security officers threatened to arrest her as she tried to photograph flights and Border Patrol vans. She said she was on public roads and property; an officer told her she was trespassing and called her a protester without the right to document the activity. Olsson said she was observing, not protesting.
Authority spokesman Matt Morawski said the agency was reviewing her claims and could not comment during that review. Olsson said documenting transfers could help lawyers and relatives learn where people were being taken. She also said moving detainees between airports and detention sites could make it harder for families and attorneys to find them.
At a January 21 board meeting, CEO Chad Newton said the authority had no role in agreements between airlines and their partners, including federal agencies, as long as those arrangements met legal and safety requirements. Detroit immigration attorney George B. Washington challenged that position, saying the airport’s continued use for the flights amounted to collaboration.
Other speakers called for the board to intervene. Detroit Committee to Stop ICE activist Steve Conn described the airport as “a key link in the chain, down to Texas or Louisiana overnight.” Sailor Mayes urged board members to stop the flights. Board member Marvin Beatty said he opposed ICE’s efforts and called the treatment of people disrespectful and wrong.
Public policy professor Jessi Hanson-DeFusco warned that people who suffered personal injuries, property damage, wrongful detention or medical malpractice could sue entities, including the county. Para-educator Jennifer Johnson said she felt a moral obligation to pressure the authority. The board did not respond to the January public comments.
Residents also criticized how the board handled its February vote. Heather Miller said there was no public display or printed copy of the resolution, and that residents could not comment before the vote following a private one-hour session. “Everyone was really upset,” she said.
Human Rights First’s January report counted 88 outbound flights from the airport in 2025 and 79 inbound flights, plus 13 flights at Detroit Metro Airport. That report’s Willow Run total differs from the group’s later figure of 87 for the year. Its January tally also put the combined count at at least 186 flights into or out of the two airports from January 1, 2025, to mid-January 2026. Human Rights First research director Savi Arvey provided data showing six additional outbound flights in January.
The group counted 39 outbound flights to Alexandria, Louisiana, in 2025, and 18 to Harlingen, Texas. Both are staging locations for deportations, and the Detroit Committee to Stop ICE said a flight could carry up to 200 people. Two outbound flights were associated with Wayne County in 2025, one to Memphis and one to Harlingen.
ICE contracts for charter flights through CSI Aviation, a broker operating under a federal contract from February 2025. Human Rights First identified Eastern Air Express, Global Crossings Airlines, Key Lime Air and Avelo Airlines as operators; Eastern Air Express ran most of the flights. Avelo ended its ICE program after public backlash, with spokesperson Courtney Godd saying the work “did not deliver enough consistent and predictable revenue to overcome its operational complexity and costs.”
ICE Air Operations includes charter flights and commercial flights with detainees escorted aboard, according to the agency. Human Rights First counted more than 13,000 ICE Air flights in 2025, nearly 6,000 more than in 2024. ICE website data showed more than 70,000 people in agency custody, including nearly 5,000 held in Michigan as of January 2026.
Olsson and the coalition want the board to address public viewing
Olsson and the Coalition to Shut the Camps, a Michigan group opposed to immigration detention centers, are asking the board to adopt a resolution on viewing and documenting the flights at its October 28 meeting. The proposal follows Olsson’s account of being threatened with arrest while observing from what she described as public property.
The authority has said it cannot stop the charters. Its board is now being asked to set out how members of the public may observe them.
