A US airline that originally may not have been widely known has now shot to infamy after provoking massive outrage amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Tens of thousands of people are boycotting Avelo Airlines after it was contracted with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to facilitate deportation flights.
Signing a boycott petition against Avelo Airlines, around 30,000 people have called the Texas-based company’s actions into question. “We demand that AVELA AIR halt plans to carry out deportation flights in cooperation with the Trump Administration,” reads the petition created by Connecticut-based immigration rights group The New Haven Immigrants Coalition.
Avelo Airlines boycott petition over deportation flights contract
Urging the US airline to pull out of the contract with the federal agency, the petition added, “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, such as Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia, with no recourse for returning to their families.”
These deportation flights to be carried out by Avelo will depart from an Arizona airport. The airline announced its deal with ICE in early April. As of March, the Grand Canyon State ranked fifth in connection with the number of ICE detainees in a state, as per the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
The Avelo-ICE deportation flight uproar comes into light as Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man, was mistakenly deported to the notorious El Salvador prison under the Trump administration despite a judge’s protective order barring it.
How has the US airline responded to being tasked with carrying out deportation flights
Courtney Goff, a spokesperson for the company, has since countered the surging backlash. “We acknowledge the weight of these concerns and have received the feedback,” they told USA Today. “Regardless of the administration or party affiliation, as a US flag carrier when our country calls and requests assistance our practice is to say yes.”
Even though Avelo carrying out deportation flights under the Trump administration recently made headlines, the spokesperson further pushed back against the petition saying that the company executed the same protocol for the Biden administration.
Founder and CEO Andrew Levy previously admitted to carrying out ICE deportation flights being a “sensitive and complicated topic.” In his statement, Levy stated that only after serious consideration did Avelo greenlight the contract with the US immigration authorities, according the airline with “stability to continue expanding our core scheduled passenger service and keep our more than 1,110 Crewmembers employed for years to come.”
Starting May 12, the budget commercial airline will commence its deportation flight plans for the Department of Homeland Security. Three of Avelo’s Boeing 737-800 aircrafts will be involved in these travel routes departing from Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Arizona.