Romulus — Local activists appeared at a Wayne County Airport Authority meeting Wednesday to urge the board to stop private air charter companies from using the Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti to operate flights for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
About 20 people made the snowy drive to attend the meeting inside the airport’s north terminal to demand that the authority’s board condemn ICE actions and stop the flights from using Metro Detroit airports. A handful were wearing T-shirts with messages including “ICE out now” and “Detroit Committee to Stop ICE.”
“I’m extremely disgusted that DTW is basically collaborating with ICE,” audience member Sailor Mayes, who described herself as a concerned citizen, told The News.
“I want them to stop the collaboration. They don’t have to let those flights go in and out,” Mayes added. “We want them to put down their foot and stop these flights.”
Charter flights carrying detained immigrants to detention centers and deportation hubs across the country left Willow Run three times a week during the final six months of 2025, according to flight tracking data collected by the immigrant rights non-profit Human Rights First.
Most of the flights headed to Harlingen, Texas and Alexandria, La., where ICE operates two of its largest deportation staging facilities.
Chad Newton, CEO of the airport authority, addressed the audience on the matter at the close of the board’s regular agenda, saying the authority is not involved in who is flying in and out of the airport.
“Our response remains — the Wayne County Airport Authority does not have any involvement in the agreements between airlines and our partners, including federal agencies,” as long as those agreements meet legal and safety requirements, Newton said.
Several people at the meeting criticized the board during the public comment period, accusing them of “collaborating” with the Trump administration’s deportation agenda.
“We know that this board did not set up that system,” said George B. Washington, a Detroit immigration attorney. “That was set up by the Trump administration. But we also know that by allowing Willow Run to do this, you’re collaborating with this system.”
Immigration attorney George B. Washington speaks on ICE flights
Immigration attorney George B. Washington of Detroit speaks on ICE flights during the Wayne County Airport Authority board meeting at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus, Michigan on January 21, 2026.
Steve Conn, a Detroit resident and a former Detroit teachers union president, attended the meeting to oppose the flights.
“We are determined to stop our airport, the people’s airport, because that’s what it is, from being used to allow ICE to kidnap people and bring them to Texas or El Salvador,” Conn said.
“The governor is appointing the people who make these decisions. No, we are not going to have it.”
One airport authority board member, Marvin Beatty, vice president of community and public relations for the Hollywood Casino at Greektown, told The News after the meeting that he is sympathetic to the protesters’ concerns.
“I in no way support ICE and its efforts,” said Beatty, who was Detroit’s first Black deputy fire commissioner and was appointed to the airport board by Wayne County Executive Warren Evans. “It is not a practice of the board to speak, but I have been a freedom fighter my whole life. To watch people be treated this way is disrespectful, and it’s wrong.”
The companies that operated the ICE charters were Eastern Air Express, Global Crossing Airlines, Key Lime Air and Avelo Airlines. Most of the flights were operated by Eastern Air Express, which is based in Kansas City, Mo.
Avelo was the target of a successful pressure campaign, recently ending its contract with ICE after a public backlash over its deportation flights. Avelo spokesperson Courtney Godd told The News that the airline ended its ICE program after it “did not deliver enough consistent and predictable revenue to overcome its operational complexity and costs.”
Mark Schwartz, an attorney with the Troy-based law firm Driggers, Schultz & Herbst, told The News on Tuesday that preventing ICE contractors from using the airport would amount to discriminating against carriers based on the purpose of the flights, which airports cannot do if they receive federal funding.
“As long as the charter operator is operating legally, the airport authority can’t stop the flights,” said Schwartz, a certified specialist in aviation law, as well as a pilot and flight instructor.
But Jessi Hanson-DeFusco, a public policy professor at Lawrence Technological University, warned airport authority board members at Wednesday’s meeting that the county could face legal issues stemming from the role of Metro Detroit airports in the deportation process.
Hanson-DeFusco said that under federal law, anyone who comes through the airport and experiences personal injury at the hands of ICE agents could sue the airport or Wayne County.
“As the lawsuits start to increase, I hope you’re ready for the financial implications,” DeFusco told the board.
Wednesday’s WCAA board meeting was the first of the year. The independent, seven-member board oversees the airport authority, which is responsible for managing and operating the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport and Willow Run Airport.
Members are appointed by the Wayne County executive, governor and the Wayne County Commission to terms between two and eight years long.
Dennis Archer, Jr., a Detroit investor and son of ex-Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, chairs the board. He was absent Wednesday. The board’s vice chair, Michael Ajami, a Michigan assistant attorney general, was elected the authority’s new chair during the meeting.
