Activists claim ICE is using Willow Run airport for deportations

FOX 2 - Activists want the Wayne County Airport Authority to halt ICE flying out undocumented immigrants from local airports.

The backstory:

Demonstrators showed up at an airport authority meeting Wednesday, urging it to cancel and contracts it may have with ICE to deport migrants in the country illegally.

It is unclear if there is a deal in place at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, but activists claim at Willow Run where they say the data suggests as many as 89 flights involving an alleged 18,000 immigrants.

Activists in attendance did not hold back with public comments at the meeting.

"Is there anybody on this board, that, with the guts to stand up and make such a resolution and to hold a press conference and tell people that what's going on at Willow Run is wrong?" said one man.

One of the pleas from those in attendance was to create a resolution expressing the sentiment against the use of flights of illegal migrants.

The airport authority released a statement saying nothing can be done about the allegations, if true. 

"The Wayne County Airport Authority does not have any involvement in agreements between airlines and their partners, including federal agencies, as long as those agreements meet legal and safety requirements."

George Washington is an attorney who spoke about the mass deportations.

"Ten thousand to 20,000 people a year will be sent to places where some of them will be killed, others injured, and other starving on the streets," he said. "That's my biggest concern."

Hilary Golston, FOX 2: "Do you have any confirmation that is happening?"

"Oh, absolutely we have," Washington said. "It's a place called the International Human Rights Organization in New York and Washington (that) published it," he said. "They just say, well, we don't know, you know, it is not our business."

There is no evidence that the flights are actually happening, at this point they are activist allegations.

The federal government, based on U.S. Immigration law, has the ability to enforce the law when it comes to immigrants who may be in the country illegally. 

They can usually call on expediency if there is some kind of risk or they can say that there is a risk or potential danger to especially United States citizens. All of those things are usually dealt with in remediation, not really dealt with at the outset. So some of these things may take years to find out what the truth is.