Originally published in the Summer/Fall 2025 edition of the Virginia Defender, issue 77, printed December 11. Reproduced here for accessibility and archival purposes. To find other stories in the Summer/Fall 2025 issue or to download the full PDF, see this post. For other issues dating back to 2012, see the Full Issues page.

By Phil Wilayto

Until recently, few people in the Greater Richmond area knew their local airport is being used as a major hub for transporting immigrants from ICE detention centers to major centers from which the detainees are eventually deported.

According to reports in The New York Times, and more detailed reporting in the online Henrico Citizen, Richmond International Airport has seen scores of such flights this year as part of the Trump administration’s war on immigrants.

In a story dated Sept. 25, Henrico Citizen reporter Dina Weinstein described the activity in chilling detail.

“Hidden in plain sight, behind the Richmond Jet Center and less than a mile from the Richmond International Airport terminal, throngs of shackled people have been loaded onto airplanes with no attributed owner about 80 separate times so far this year, according to a human rights organization and Citizen observations.

“Human Rights First reports that those people then have in many cases been flown (either directly or indirectly) to the country’s largest U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement hub in Alexandria, Louisiana, where more than 1,000 deportation flights from cities throughout the U.S. have landed since January.”

Central to the Richmond airport operation is support provided by the Richmond Jet Center, a family owned and operated company that, according to its website, provides “… a range of services for private and commercial aircraft, including a full range of ground support assistance for all types of general and commercial aviation aircraft.”

Richmond Jet Center partners with another company, Aero Industries, that handles maintenance and storage. Both companies are located at 5745 Huntsman Road, near the airport.

After news about the ICE activity was reported, some Virgimia elected officials spoke out against it, including U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner and Rep. Jennifer McClellan.

Also expressing opposition to the operation was Tyrone E. Nelson, a member of the Henrico County Board of Supervisors, whose Varina District includes the airport.

Nelson also is vice chair of the Capital Region Airport Commission, the entity that owns and operates the airport, known by its airport code, RIC.

Nelson says he asked Perry Miller, the airport commission’s CEO, to invite someone from the Richmond Air Center to one of the commission’s monthly meetings to talk about the ICE connection.

“Their answer was that they wouldn’t come and speak in an open session,” Nelson told the Defender. “Initially, they said something about speaking in a closed session.”

Asked if any of the commission members had personally talked with anyone from the Richmond Jet Center, Nelson said that he has spoken with the company’s CEO, Michael Clarke, but didn’t learn anything that hadn’t already been made public.

“The only thing was, he said this is something they had to do, that they couldn’t tell the federal government “no,” and that this is not the first administration they’ve contracted with to do these flights. He went back to the Obama administration.

“Clearly, we know it’s more frequent now, but it’s not anything new. He said if we wanted to ask more questions, we should ask the federal government, ask ICE. So I did ask our CEO to look into that, a couple of weeks ago.”

And how does Supervisor Nelson feel about ICE using the RIC as a hub for itsdeportation work?

“If there are people who are here illegally and they are committing murder or some serious crime, I understand that,” he said. “And for decades that has not been a problem. But using the federal government to be at war with people of color from other countries for political reasons, I think that’s sad.

“So whether it’s reducing the local population to influence elections, or just to meet some quota, we make up stories about how horrible immigrants are. I think that is sad, so I have been opposed to those efforts since Trump came into his second term.”

Asked if there were any plans to press the issue of the ICE flights at RIC, Nelson said, “At this point, I don’t know what we can do, after speaking with our CEO, talking with our counsel. If someone knows something we can do, tell me. I’m all ears.

“We have several members who are opposed to this, but the airport receives a significant amount of funding from the federal government, and I don’t know if we’re prepared to go to war with them.”