Avelo under fire for contracting with ICE for deportation flights

The U.S. government usually contracts with charter companies for deportation flights. And you can read a ProPublica account of those flights here.

But now a commercial budget airline, Houston-based Avelo, has a contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration Control and Enforcement agency (ICE) to operate deportation flights out of Arizona’s Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport beginning in mid-May, according to the Associated Press and others.

In a statement, Avelo airline CEO Andrew Levy said the company decided to support ICE’s efforts because it would help with Avelo’s expansion and would protect jobs, but acknowledged the move “is a sensitive and complicated topic.”

Avelo is currently recruiting staff for these flights with a job listing on its site that explains Avelo will be operating a charter program for the Department of Homeland Security and that flights will be both domestic and international “to support DHS’s deportation efforts.”

At the same time, Avelo has announced it will be pulling up stakes Boise Airport (BOI) as of April 27, according to the Idaho Statesman, and at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport (STS) as of May 1, according to The Press Democrat.

Petition to boycott Avelo Airlines

A Change.org petition launched by the New Haven Immigrant Heritage Coalition demands that Avelo Airlines halt deportation flight plans in cooperation with the Trump Administration. (Avelo operates flights out of Tweed Airport near New Haven).

“We pledge to boycott the airline until they stop plans to profit off ICE flights that are tearing families and communities apart and removing some legal residents….” the petition states.