About a dozen activists are expected to show up at an Indianapolis Airport Authority board meeting on Friday, Dec. 19, to rally against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flights.
“We’re not going to let this happen in the dark,” said Liz Marvin, an organizer with Westside Indy Indivisible Resistance Movement.
The meeting, from 8-9 a.m. in the Airport Board Room in the main terminal building, is open to the public. Immigration enforcement is not listed as an agenda topic.
Mirror Indy first reported ICE’s use of the Indianapolis airport in October, when journalists witnessed dozens of people in handcuffs loaded onto a private charter flight bound for Alexandria, Louisiana — a major deportation hub.
Who the detainees are or where they came from is unclear. But records show they are being flown in and out of Indianapolis at least three times a week, with nearly 90 trips logged since July.
GET THE BACKSTORY
ICE quietly launched detainee flights out of Indianapolis airport
Local immigration advocates say they didn’t know. Now they’re pushing back.
It’s the latest example of the city’s role in the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, which began through a partnership with the Marion County Jail to hold detained immigrants. Sheriff Kerry Forestal, facing months of criticism, has said he is upholding the law.
Similarly, the Indianapolis Airport Authority said it cannot stop ICE from using the airways.
The airport, a spokesperson said in an Oct. 22 email, “must comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations and cannot interfere with or restrict federal and civil aviation activities.”
That’s not a satisfying answer for Amy Guzman, another rally organizer. The 49-year-old westsider wants to put pressure on the airport’s leadership to stop or condemn the ICE flights. That includes 11 board members who oversee the airport’s finances and daily operations.
“Maybe you can’t do something immediately,” Guzman said. “But you can put a statement out denouncing this.”
Mirror Indy reached out to the airport for comment about the rally. A PR firm representing the Indianapolis Airport Authority did not respond to questions about the group’s demands.
“IAA regulates protesting and demonstrating on airport property,” the spokesperson said in a Dec. 17 email. “Public safety officials have been in contact with group leaders about accommodating their interest and sharing information about IAA’s ordinance.”
‘We can witness’
Guzman, who was adopted from Colombia, has watched her immigrant community in Indianapolis live with more and more fear. They saw headlines across the country about midnight raids in nearby cities, arrests inside courthouses and human rights abuses in an El Salvador prison holding detainees for the U.S. government.
Though things have been more quiet here in comparison, Guzman said she is worried about more federal action. The Indiana National Guard recently started assisting ICE with operations across the state. And federal and state officials opened two new immigration detention centers — Camp Atterbury and “The Speedway Slammer” in Miami County.
“We’re sitting ducks,” Guzman told Mirror Indy.
Her advocacy group wants to raise awareness about what’s already happening, too. That includes tracking the ICE flights.
Most of the planes landing in Indy arrive from Youngstown, Ohio. Marvin, the second organizer, regularly texts with activists there, tracking flights when they take off. Then, she follows the detainees’ journeys to Texas or Louisiana.
Local immigration attorneys say ICE is making due process more difficult by moving people away from their families and lawyers. Federal data shows the majority of people in immigration detention in 2025 have no criminal history.
“People are being disappeared,” Marvin said. “There’s nothing we can do to stop them, but we can witness and let people know their neighbors don’t stand for it.”
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at 317-721-7648 or email maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
