The first Avelo deportation flight departed from Mesa, Arizona, May 12 following a month of petitions and protests across Connecticut and the country.

These actions were sparked by Avelo’s choice to operate “ICE flights” and profit from the Trump Administration’s cruel and illegal deportation practices. Why do flights originating more than 2,000 miles away matter so much to Connecticut?

In a leaked internal memo, Avelo CEO Andrew Levy offered an alarming rationale: the new revenue will mitigate operating losses at Tweed Airport in New Haven. Losses are already mitigated by significant subsidies from the State of Connecticut, including a fuel tax waiver and $2 two million backstop.

The tax subsidy sunsets on June 30, with no renewal planned – perhaps due to outrage expressed by state elected officials, including Attorney General William Tong, State Senate President Martin Looney, and Deputy House Majority Leader Juan Candelaria. Now, Connecticut Avelo patrons face the knowledge that trips out of New Haven are subsidized on the backs of neighbors ripped from their families, communities, and workplaces often without justification, due process, or basic safety.

Avelo’s promotional materials proudly declare company values to include “Safety Always in everything we do and in caring for one another” and “Do the Right Thing by treating everyone with kindness and respect, honoring our commitments, and being open, honest and transparent.” Yet DHS requirements for ICE flights make a mockery of these values, with rules such as five point shackles for all detainees.

Flight attendants are routinely encouraged not to make eye contact with or speak to detainees. Staff sounded the alarm that there is no realistic plan in place to safely evacuate detainees in the event of an emergency. Given the shackles, it would be impossible to evacuate detainees using the long-standing airline safety standard 90 second rule. Thus Avelo’s ICE flights will not offer “Safety Always” or the “Right Thing” – and ordinary passengers are not pleased. 

As of this writing, more than 37,850 people from 50 states and 18 countries pledged to boycott Avelo until they break the ICE contract, in a petition organized by our New Haven Immigrants Coalition. Protests have also taken place in Bend, OR; Burbank, CA; Rochester, NY; Sonoma, CA; and Wilmington, DE. At the same time, Avelo seeks $100 million from investors, given projections indicating that cash-on-hand will dip below $2 million in June. It’s difficult to imagine how to run an airline with $2 million in cash, much less who will be lining up at the gate to publicly invest in dehumanization and family separation. 

Human rights experts decry the misapplication of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deny due process, independent review, and court access to detainees. As long as detentions and deportations take place in direct opposition to the law, to court orders, and to standard practice, we will boycott Avelo and resist.

As long as Avelo facilitates the Trump Administration’s practice of detaining and deporting citizens, permanent residents, and people with legal student visas without due process from the U.S. to countries and prisons with horrific histories of documented human rights abuses, we will sound the alarm and choose other ways to travel. 

Once considered New Haven’s “hometown airline,” Avelo has broken with our state’s values and opened a dark and dangerous chapter. This is a choice, and a different choice can still be made. Mass deportations only occur if airlines cooperate.

We call on Avelo CEO Andrew Levy to remember the heroism of those who refused to be complicit in the crimes of authoritarian governments in eras past, and to follow in their footsteps.

Hope Chávez, Ana Juárez, Sarah Miller and Anne Watkins are Members of the New Haven Immigrants Coalition.