CU Boulder Athletics will not cancel or modify its contract with Key Lime Air, a local airline based out of Englewood, which has drawn protests for its operation of detainee transport flights for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Key Lime Air’s ICE contract was first documented by Colorado Newsline in October, which reported that dozens of people in shackles had been seen being escorted off a Key Lime airplane in Seattle. The company is the first known Colorado-based airline to participate in immigration enforcement flights, which have increased dramatically in frequency this year. A large majority of ICE flights transporting immigrants between U.S. detention centers and out of the country rely on a multibillion-dollar system of charter flights like those operated by Key Lime Air.
Local protests of Key Lime Air have sprung up amid Trump’s deeply contentious federal immigration policy, in which at least 170 U.S. citizens have been detained by ICE, and in one infamous case this year, hundreds of immigrants were flown to an El Salvadoran prison, where some reported being tortured.
Key Lime Air began working with ICE Air Operations’ airline broker, CSI Aviation, in September, according to the nonpartisan nonprofit Human Rights First. In October, Key Lime Air flew 192 of a record-high 1,014 domestic immigration enforcement flights, according to Human Rights First. Advocates say activity on ICE flights raises human rights concerns, including ICE officers straitjacketing people in full-body restraint suits during 16-hour flights. Former flight attendants with GlobalX, another CSI Aviation contractor, told ProPublica that they were not taught how to safely evacuate passengers in shackles.
CU Athletics representative Steve Hurlbert did not address questions from Boulder Reporting Lab about whether the university was planning to change its contract with Key Lime Air in response to protests.
Hurlbert said “the university does not … request that potential contractors provide a list of other business relationships unless they are relevant to assisting the university in assessing the capacity and competency of the company.”
CU Athletics has contracted with Key Lime Air for some men’s and women’s basketball travel since 2011, and its current contract “is in effect with the university through 2029,” according to Hurlbert.
On Nov. 17, Boulder activists participated in an “all-day call-in” to Key Lime Air’s main office “demanding that Key Lime Air end its involvement in deportation flights.”
Cliff Honeycutt, the company’s CEO, told Colorado Newsline that, “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.”
I strongly encourage all of you, but especially CU Alumni, to write to the CU Regents and let them know how you feel about them supporting an airlines involved in human rights abuses. As an alumni myself, I will not attend another CU event until they end their relationship with Key Lime.