100+ flights a year: How ICE uses Columbus Airport, what happens with runway closed
Columbus immigration advocates and organizations like Indivisible have prioritized raising awareness about conditions in Stewart Detention Center, providing support for detained immigrants and explaining how important Columbus has become for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s operations as President Donald Trump’s administration has ramped up deportations.
Advocates say the city’s proximity to Stewart Detention Center has made it particularly important for transporting detainees to and from Lumpkin because it has the nearest airport.
While some detainees may be bused to Stewart Detention Center, such as North Carolina student Allison Bustillo, who spent almost seven months in Stewart, that isn’t the case for all detainees.
Many are flown to the Columbus Airport before they are transferred to a bus and driven the rest of the way to Lumpkin. Some go through Columbus Airport on their way out of the Stewart Detention Center to either be transported to another facility or deported.
Stewart Detention Center cannot function with the airport infrastructure provided by Columbus and Fort Benning, Columbus resident and former immigration advocate Monica Whatley told the Ledger-Enquirer.
Grassroots activist organizations, such as Columbus GA Indivisible, and other independent immigration advocates have become watchdogs monitoring ICE activity at the Columbus Airport
While the Trump administration has placed a priority on deporting undocumented immigrants, the regular use of the Columbus Airport by ICE is not unique to President Donald Trump’s time in office.
From September 2023 through August 2024, there were 162 ICE flights into the Columbus Airport, according to data provided to the Ledger-Enquirer by airport director Amber Clark. Between September 2024 and August 2025, there were 138 ICE flights landing there.
Clark said she couldn’t provide an estimate of how many ICE detainees have passed through the Columbus Airport because the airport doesn’t receive such information.
The airport’s runway closed in early August for approximately four months, so ICE flights into the area are not landing at the Columbus Airport as the reconstruction project, which costs over $22 million, is completed.
Following a request from the Department of Homeland Security, Fort Benning is providing Lawson Army Airfield access and aviation support services to ICE while the Columbus Airport is closed, Jennifer Gunn, director of public affairs at the Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning, confirmed to the Ledger-Enquirer in an email.
She was not able to provide any additional details on ICE’s operations at the airfield.
Watchdogs call for more transparency
A group led by Indivisible attended a Sept. 2 Columbus Airport Commission meeting to speak about ICE’s use of the airport.
One member of the group, Ric Rivera, asked for transparency from the airport regarding the ICE flights. Schedules for these flights used to be publicly available but are now blocked, Rivera said, keeping the public from seeing the schedule or knowing who is operating them.
The reason is new legislation, Clark explained during the meeting.
“There’s a new law that’s being looked at where it’s kind of all over the place,” she said. “It’s not just federal flights, it’s also business flights.”
If someone wanted information about state-level operations, Clark said, they could submit an open records request and have that information provided.
Whatley, who also attended the meeting, pointed out that this transparency would ease the public’s curiosity.
“I come and peek through the chain-link fence every once in a while,” she said at the meeting. “But y’all see it day in and day out. Y’all know the faces of these people. These are people who have families who care about them. They want to know where their loved ones are.”
Although the flights out of Columbus are domestic, she said, the final destination for many of these people is international.
“It’s just basic stuff that any one of us would want to do for our loved one,” Whatley said. “And it starts right here in Columbus for a lot of people.”
Clark told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email, “The Columbus Airport receives federal funding and therefore must adhere to all federal grant assurances to include that it will make the airport available as an airport for public use on reasonable terms and without unjust discrimination to all types, kinds, and classes of aeronautical activities. In our last fiscal year, the Columbus Airport received 158 ICE flights, which totaled 2% of the total flights serviced by the Columbus Airport during such time.”
How volunteers help detainees’ families
Along with pushing for more transparency about ICE operations, Columbus-area advocates have been working to spread awareness about volunteer opportunities to help immigrants at Stewart Detention Center and their families.
Amilcar Valencia is the executive director of El Refugio, a nonprofit that supports immigrants and their families.
It was established in 2010 by Atlanta-area volunteers, Valencia told the Ledger-Enquirer, as a way to help families who travel long distances to visit their families in Stewart Detention Center.
El Refugio operates a hospitality house to give families a place to stay overnight, food and other resources they may need to support themselves and their loved ones.
In the past, many of their volunteers have come to Lumpkin from Atlanta, he said, but this has limited the help El Refugio can provide because these volunteers have to travel home by certain times.
This is why El Refugio, and members of Indivisible, have been encouraging Columbus and Phenix City residents to volunteer.
“It’s crucial for use to have more local volunteers,” Valencia said. “Of course, there’s not a lot of volunteers in Lumpkin.”
The larger populations in Columbus, Phenix City and people from surrounding towns will have more potential for finding volunteers, he said.
El Refugio volunteers would be a presence at the house, open it, offer families food and generally help ensure the house is ready to accommodate visitors, he said.
People who would like to help, but can’t volunteer, may donate on the organization’s website, he said. They can also contact El Refugio if they’d like to donate household items.
The rally will be held outside the Middle District of Georgia Court at 120 12th Street from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Speakers will include representatives from advocacy organizations and local pastors, according to a news release. Earlier this week, Parsonage filed a habeas corpus petition in the Middle District of Georgia on Taylor’s behalf in an effort to get him released.
Friday’s rally, led by Columbus GA Indivisible, will be held simultaneously with a rally in Atlanta and brings the activism of some Columbus residents to the forefront as they try to bring attention to the impact ICE operations have in Columbus and the surrounding area. Indivisible is a grassroots organization advocating for immigrants’ rights.
Stewart Detention Center is one of the largest detention centers in the country, Valencia said, and people from all over Georgia and the Carolinas are held there.
This includes people in Columbus who are immigrants and working community members, he said.
“It impacts your neighbors,” Valencia said. “It impacts people you may know, people who maybe work for you, your congregations and community members everywhere. They’re contributing members of the city, and I think it’d be important to stand in solidarity with them.”
