A private air terminal connected to a prominent Memphis family is being used by federal authorities to transport ICE detainees out of the Midsouth. Now, activists are pressuring the the Wilson family to stop the flights.
On Tuesday, nearly two dozen immigrant rights activists lined up along Winchester Road, across from Wilson Air Center.
As a white bus with tinted windows drove past the crowd, demonstrators waved signs written in Spanish with supportive messages such as “AMIGOS No Estan Solos,” which translates to “friends you are not alone.”
The people on that bus were due for a 9 a.m. flight out of Memphis.
Since April, a volunteer group known as “Bird-Watchers,” has been tracking ICE transfer flights out of Wilson Air Center, a private terminal adjacent to Memphis International Airport. Primarily serving corporate clients the Fixed-Based Operator (FBO), is also connected to descendants of Holiday Inn founder, Kemmons Wilson.
“We want the people in the bus to know we stand with them as they go by,” said Joni Laney, a retired schoolteacher and one of the demonstration's leaders. “Letting them know we see them, we witness their suffering and we ask for justice.”
Laney said that on any given week, there are about three ICE departures out of Memphis, most carrying about 40 detainees brought from the ICE detention facility in Mason, Tenn.
Retired pastor Billy Vaughan said the Wilson family has a “wonderful reputation in Memphis.”
"I'm just hopeful that somehow the message will get through to them, because I know that they are people of conscience," he said.
The Institute for Public Service Reporting reached out to the Wilson family for comment; we are waiting on a reply. The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment about “ongoing or future” flight operations.
Gisela Guerrero with the Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope tearfully watched the plane leave the tarmac on Tuesday. As a Latina, she says it’s like seeing family members go.
“And we can't forget, too, that the reason all of this is happening is because someone thinks we're less-than,” Guerrero said.
By midday, the plane had landed in Alexandria, Louisiana, a stop for many undocumented immigrants before deportation.