This story was reported and written by VPM News.
It started with something Paul Fleisher could see from the road on his commute: planes.
But these weren’t the commercial jets most people associate with the Richmond International Airport. They were parked on the far end of the airport, away from the main terminal.
Fleisher, who lives in Henrico County, started noticing them — and white prison transfer buses — more often on his way to his workout at the YMCA, or when he went to check out books at the Sandston Public Library.
Eventually, he connected the flights to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“From what I understand, one of the strategies that ICE is using is to shuffle people around from place to place. It makes it hard for their family members to know where they are — or if not impossible,” Fleisher said.
ICE operates a network of chartered flights working with private airlines like the ones Fleisher observed — GlobalX and Eastern Air Express — not just to deport people from the United States, but to move people in its custody between local detention centers and the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana, a major hub for ICE’s air operations.
ICE did not respond to emailed questions.
The 78-year-old retiree started documenting the flights by taking photos and submitting them to a local Facebook page, RVA ICE-SCREAM, to raise awareness.
“I’d like to know who these folks are who are being flown somewhere. I’d like to know where they’re going,” Fleisher told VPM News on Sept. 11. I’d like to know how this permission to do these flights locally here at the Richmond airport came about.”
For people in ICE custody, these flights can mean more than simply being moved from one place to another.
They impact family visitation, legal counsel and illustrate how quickly someone can move through the system — as was the case for former Richmond resident Ricardo Martinez Cantanero last summer.
According to a letter he wrote, after being detained at Southwood Apartments, he was moved through local ICE facilities before being brought to RIC — where he first boarded a GlobalX plane that landed in Texas, then at ICE’s Alexandria Staging Facility, before finally landing in his home county of Honduras. The entire process took three days.
Fleisher said he believes he has a moral obligation to speak up, as many in Greater Richmond may not know this is happening locally.
“First of all, our country is a nation of immigrants. My grandparents came from Eastern Europe. No person — no human being — should be treated the way that these undocumented immigrants are being treated,” Fleisher said. “So when you see an injustice, you have the obligation to speak up.”
More than 100 flights already this year
Human Rights First’s ICE Flight Monitor, which tracks immigration enforcement flights using publicly available aviation data and other sources, has documented a growing number of flights involving Richmond International Airport. This issue was first reported by the Henrico Citizen in 2025.
The organization counted 128 enforcement flights departing from RIC in 2025. Through July of this year, it counted 104.
Troy Bell, spokesperson for the Capital Region Airport Commission (which owns and operates RIC), said flights with people detained have passed through RIC for several years, but noted that these flights have increased “substantially” since early 2025. When asked for a flight count, Bell told VPM News the airport does not maintain a flight count for any chartered operations.
The ICE Flight Monitor also documented dozens of domestic “shuffle” flights this summer — flights being used to move people in ICE custody between detention centers and other locations.
According to Human Rights First’s August report, in the month of July, 1,363 shuffle flights operated across 61 cities, the highest number recorded since at least 2020.
Flights departed from Richmond three to four times per week in July, according to the report.
But Bell told VPM News that the commission has no direct agreement with the Department of Homeland Security or US Immigration and Customs Enforcement pertaining to these flights. Nor, he said, does it have “the legal right to either authorize or refuse DHS/ICE flights.”
Approval for these flights comes from the air traffic control tower at RIC, which is in charge of approving operations on the airfield — including takeoffs and landings.
The Richmond tower is operated by the Federal Aviation Administration. Because RIC regularly accepts federal funding, it is subject to FAA “grant assurances,” which are requirements airports agree to follow in exchange for funding.
Recent changes to the FAA’s Airport Compliance Manual reinforce Grant Assurance #27, which requires federally obligated airports to: “… make airport facilities available to the United States for use by Government aircraft ‘at all times’ and in common with other aircraft.”
“RIC may not ban ICE flights or request a reroute to another airport, as the FAA has exclusive sovereignty over U.S. navigable airspace,” Bell said.
The FAA did not respond to a list of questions from VPM News, including the agency’s role in determining that an aircraft chartered by the Department of Homeland Security or ICE would use RIC as part of its operations.
Bell noted that these flights don’t utilize the airport’s commercial gates or terminals. He also confirmed that fixed-base operators, like Richmond Jet Center, handle the ground marshalling of these government charter flights and provide fuel.
When asked if the airport commission receives any revenue associated with these flights, Bell said operators like RJC pay fixed rent — with or without handling government charters.
Per Richmond BizSense, Richmond Jet Center finalized a 5-year contract and facility upgrade terms with RIC in May 2025. According to terms of the lease, RJC pays the airport an annual rent of $582,000.
RJC did not respond to questions from VPM News.
Calls to end ICE flights
Over 100 people gathered on a Saturday in September alongside Airport Drive to protest the airport’s position.
Fleisher — a lifelong activist who demonstrated as a teenager to desegregate his local movie theatre in Harford County, Maryland, and later was an antiwar activist during the Vietnam War — helped organize the protest alongside RVA Indivisible. To him, the gathering allowed others with concerns a chance to speak out in a more visible way.
Holding signs that read “END SHUFFLE FLIGHTS” and “STOP ICE FLIGHTS,” demonstrators said the protest was not simply a call to stop the flights, but a demand for greater transparency on how this is allowed to happen at RIC.
Bill Muth, a Richmond resident, said so much of what the Department of Homeland Security is doing happens under a veil of secrecy. He said demonstrating is his way to make visible what DHS is “desperately trying to keep invisible.”
“We’re learning so much about how Richmond International Airport is integral to the shipment of innocent people out of this country or to other detention centers, and it’s just not normal, and it’s just not okay,” Muth said.
For others, participating in the protest is about showing solidarity.
Janet Eddy, an organizer with the Central Virginia Indivisible chapter, said that she wants the immigrant community to know they are not alone.
“Part of the reason I come out here is because whenever an immigrant comes by in their car, I hope they can hold this image as they listen to people say horrible things that aren’t true about them,” Eddy said.
As for Fleisher, he described the protest as a success and hopes that it will be a first step forward, although he admits he’s not sure what comes next.
“Maybe talking to local leaders. Maybe talking to the airport commission. Maybe identifying the flight carriers that are flying in and out of here, and if we can find some way to put some economic pressure on them — to do that,” Fleisher said at the protest.