Activists protest Colorado’s Key Lime Air over ICE flights

A small crowd demonstrated at the entrance to Centennial Airport on Sunday, protesting Colorado-based Key Lime Air over its operation of detainee transport flights for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Outside the regional Arapahoe County airport where Key Lime Air is headquartered, a few dozen picketers who began gathering just after noon held signs, chanted anti-ICE slogans and heard music from “protest marching band” Notes of Dissent. The demonstration drew shouts and honks of support from passing cars.

“This is my community, and we don’t condone what’s happening, the cruelty that’s taking place,” Alejandra Correa-Weir, a Centennial resident and protest organizer, said in an interview. “Key Lime is taking a profit out of the cruelty and harm that is being done to the immigrant community.”

Key Lime’s operation of ICE flights was first reported by Newsline last month. Since mid-September, two of the airline’s planes have frequently flown routes to and from ICE detention hubs in Texas, Louisiana and elsewhere, according to a Newsline analysis of publicly available flight tracking data. That included at least nine flights in and out of Lake City, Florida — a 15-minute drive from the Everglades detention center that Republicans have branded “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Key Lime’s ICE flights involve the transportation of dozens of detainees who are loaded on and off planes in shackles, with their personal belongings apparently collected in white trash bags, according to scenes witnessed by Newsline reporters. Advocates say ICE’s pattern of moving people across the country in these “shuffle flights” can harm detainees’ mental health, family connections and access to legal services.

Colorado airline operates flights for ICE, records show

“Key Lime Air respects the right of all individuals to peacefully protest and share their opinions,” Cliff Honeycutt, the company’s CEO, wrote in a text message. “As a matter of policy, we are unable to discuss our charter operations. Our focus remains on conducting ALL Key Lime Air flights in accordance with the highest federally mandated safety standards.”

Key Lime, which also operates passenger flights through its subsidiary Denver Air Connection, is part of a growing network of operators participating in immigration enforcement, especially flights between ICE detention centers throughout the country.

The 83 ICE flights operated by Key Lime in September, as counted by the nonprofit Human Rights First, were among the record-high 969 domestic immigration enforcement flights compiled in its monthly ICE Flight Monitor report.

“The increase in domestic shuffle flights under the second Trump administration raises serious concerns as individuals are frequently moved far from their families and legal representation, often isolated in facilities with harsh conditions,” the report’s authors wrote.

In his second term, President Donald Trump has pledged to carry out the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” aiming to remove all of the estimated 12 million immigrants in the country without permanent legal status, regardless of how long they have been in the country, the legal status of their family members or whether they have criminal records.

Polls have shown that the number of Americans who approve of Trump’s handling of immigration issues has declined in 2025, amid an aggressive expansion of ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations in cities including Los Angeles and Chicago. Correa-Weir said the supportive shouts and honks from cars passing Sunday’s protest were a sign that growing numbers of people in communities like Centennial are “willing to stand up to what’s happening.”

“It speaks to the amount of people that are not okay with what’s happening to our immigrant community,” said Correa-Weir. “The majority of people … are with us, and they don’t want this happening at all.”