Immigration activists gather at Memphis airport to protest ICE ‘shuffle flights’
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Activists in Memphis say they’re standing up for detained immigrants who are being moved around the country maliciously.
Memphis immigration activist group Vecindarios 901 hosted a protest Tuesday morning outside the Wilson Air Center, which members allege “secretly” has a flight service contract with ICE and profits from the agency’s “inhumane systems.”
Detainees were being bussed to the airport Tuesday from the West Tennessee Detention Center 45 miles away in Mason. Organizers say the flight was headed to Alexandria, Louisiana.
Activists held up signs of support in hopes the detainees could see them.
Vecindarios 901 has tracked 51 ICE “shuffle flights” leaving Wilson Air Center since March 2026.
Leaders say flights like these have increased 123% under the second Trump administration.
The group says they “are designed to punish and wear down migrants in detention, forcing legal counsel to constantly recalibrate and families to wonder where their loved ones are being held and how they are being treated.”
Activists say ICE obstructs detainees’ right to challenge unlawful imprisonment because habeas corpus petitions can only be filed in the jurisdiction where the inmate is being held.
“ICE weaponizes shuffle flights to disconnect detained people from their support systems at home and place them in constant legal limbo,” Vecindarios 901 organizers said.
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