The involvement of a Colorado-based airline in immigration enforcement flights prompted a protest south of Cortez on Saturday morning.
About 20 people gathered at the intersection of Highway 491 and the McElmo Canyon road to protest immigration transport flights operated by Key Lime Air, which provides regular passenger flights out of the Cortez Municipal Airport.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security have contracted with Key Lime Air to transport immigrants to detention hubs around the country. That was reported by Colorado Newsline in an October article.
“The company is part of a growing network of operators participating in immigration enforcement, especially flights between ICE detention centers throughout the country,” the Newsline article states. https://coloradonewsline.com/2025/10/23/colorado-airline-flights-ice/
In a September report titled “ICE Flight Monitor,” the nonprofit Human Rights First explained, “The vast majority of U.S. immigration enforcement flights are carried out by ICE Air Operations (IAO). IAO does not own planes but rather contracts its operations through the airline broker CSI Aviation, which in turn subcontracts to several airline carriers. These include GlobalX, Eastern Air Express, Avelo Airlines, World Atlantic (Caribbean Sun), Eastern Air, OMNI Air, Kaiser, and Key Lime Air (which began its operations with ICE Air in mid-September 2025). ICE also utilizes small charter planes operated by Gryphon Air (ATS) and Journey Aviation.”
In a November article, Newsline quoted Key Lime’s CEO, Cliff Honeycutt, as saying by text, “Key Lime Air respects the right of all individuals to peacefully protest and share their opinions. 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.”
Saturday’s protesters, who chose the 491/Road G intersection because it’s near the Cortez airport, carried signs calling for an end to Key Lime’s ICE flights and asking, “Who would Jesus deport?”
They drew supportive honks from passing drivers, although one passerby asked whether the demonstrators support illegal immigration.
In an email, Dignity Project co-organizer Angela Atkinson, who helped organize the protest, told KSJD, “We do not support illegal immigration.”
However, she said immigrants’ due process and rights are often being violated.
In her statement, she said:
“What we are seeing with ICE and DHS often does not adhere to legal protocols or procedures.
“We do not support illegal immigration. Having said that, immigrants who are in the midst of an asylum process are here legally, which was the basis of the illegal detention of the father and two children in Durango.
“Immigrants’ due process and rights, i.e. probable cause, right to an attorney, etc., are being consciously ignored by this administration to the point that even legal U.S. citizens are being detained for weeks at a time.
“In terms of Key Lime Air, the national protest movement has asked for more transparency regarding the transportation of detainees and a severance of the contract with ICE and DHS.”
Protests against the deportation flights have also taken place in Boulder, Pueblo, and Arapahoe County in Colorado as well as other places around the nation.
Earlier this month, the Denver City Council voted 11 to 1 to reject a contract with Key Lime Air that would have allowed it to expand its operating space at Denver International Airport.
