ICE Deportation Airline Avelo Relies on Blue-State Subsidies. Will Dem Governors Do Anything About It?

The Intercept

a day ago

Thousands of people around the country have joined a boycott of a passenger airline profiting off President Donald Trump's mass deportation machine.
Now, activists are calling on Democratic elected officials to put pressure on Avelo Airlines, the Houston-based low-cost carrier at the center of the controversy, by ending subsidies and airport leases until it cuts off U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
They are making headway in places like New Haven, Connecticut, which has forbidden its employees from using city funds on Avelo. Elsewhere, however, activists have received the silent treatment from officials like Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, whom they have asked to cancel Avelo's contract to fly out of the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. 'There is such a deep need right now for anybody in power to stand up to Trump in a meaningful way.'
Since mid-May when it began flying for ICE Air, Avelo operated 10 percent of the agency's deportation flights, according to aviation researcher Tom Cartwright, and 20 percent of ICE flights overall. (Avelo did not respond to a request for comment.)
It's an effort that draws direct inspiration from the Tesla Takedown movement, which belatedly received support from Democratic elected officials after weeks of grassroots anger. Ryan Harvey, an organizer based in Baltimore, say Avelo's role in deportation flights gives Democratic leaders a chance to lead.
'There is such a deep need right now for anybody in power to stand up to Trump in a meaningful way and do something real, do something with a little bit of guts behind it,' said Harvey. 'And this is an easy one, because they can just do it.'
Long before Trump began his second term, Immigration and Customs Enforcement relied on contract carriers for deportation charter flights.
Until recently, those carriers did not offer regular passenger service. In April, however, Avelo announced that it was adding ICE flights to a roster that had previously consisted mostly of cheap flights between mid-sized cities and vacation destinations.
The move was born out of necessity, Avelo claimed. With its passenger business failing to turn a profit, it had to turn to ICE to stay afloat.
What happened next may have caught Avelo off-guard. While the airline acknowledged that its move would be controversial, its decision has been received by a full-fledged protest movement involving dozens of protests at airports nationwide, along with calls for consumers to boycott the airline.
'They're a financially strapped company to begin with,' said Matthew Boulay, an organizer with the national Coalition to Stop Avelo. 'They take the ICE contract out of, essentially, desperation. It's blood money. And now they are finding, I think, unexpected resistance and protest.'
The concerns center on the conditions on ICE's deportation flights, the rushed process for deportations under Trump, and the final destinations in places like El Salvador.
Despite the burgeoning movement, it remains unclear whether the boycott has affected Avelo's bottom line.
Seth Miller, an aviation industry analyst and New Hampshire state representative who has been critical of Avelo's work for ICE, said it is hard to piece out the effect of the boycott from the generally dismal economic conditions for low-cost carriers.
'Boycotts are hard to make work and win,' Miller said. 'Even the best of them take time. It remains to be seen how much time Avelo has. There has been relatively public news about their financials being pretty dire, but they haven't collapsed yet.'
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Activists have now launched a second front in their pressure campaign.
They are asking politicians to eliminate the subsidies that cities and states dole out to airlines like Avelo to serve smaller markets — unless and until the airline reverses course on its ICE contract. 'It can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not a million, in value.'
Avelo appears to rely more than most on those subsidies, its critics say. By scouring public records, they have discovered a network of direct or indirect subsidies that have included jet fuel tax exemptions in Connecticut, New York, and Delaware; minimum revenue guarantees in places like Daytona Beach, Florida; and money spent on marketing Avelo flights in cities like Wilmington, North Carolina.
'It can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not a million, in value,' Miller said. 'When you're running on a shoestring, it can make a huge difference.'
In places like Delaware, the subsidies have helped return passenger service to airports that lacked it for years. Yet activists say that the moral pitfalls of partnering with Avelo have grown too glaring to ignore.
In Connecticut, advocates drew the support of officials such as Attorney General William Tong and have succeeded in blocking an extension of the airline's jet fuel tax exemption. New Haven has also barred public employees from using city funds to fly with Avelo Airlines.
Advocates targeting Avelo have found mixed success elsewhere.
Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer said in April that he would not fly on Avelo flights personally. Yet the Delaware River and Bay Authority, which operates the Wilmington Airport in Delaware, is in the middle of a $9.8 million expansion meant to attract further flights from Avelo, according to a report last month in the Philadelphia Business Journal. (Meyer and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, Democrats who each appoint half of the authority's board members, did not respond to requests for comment.)
The authority 'neither supports nor opposes Avelo's operations,' its communications director said in a statement.
'The DRBA's role is to administer its public use facility in a lawful, equitable and non-discriminatory manner. More specifically, the DRBA is required to permit operations by any commercial carrier that meets applicable regulatory requirements,' said James Salmon.
Salmon said no tax dollars are involved in the authority's spending, which relies on user fees like bridge tolls.
The protesters have also faced muted responses in places like North Carolina.
'Most of the electeds have stayed quiet,' said John Herrmann, who's been involved in the Wilmington campaign against the airline as part of the local chapter of the liberal activist group Indivisible. 'We expected more leadership from the Democratic Party to take on Avelo.'
Faced with such indifference, the activists and elected officials joining forces to put pressure on Avelo say they are girding for what could be a long battle. 'We expected more leadership from the Democratic Party to take on Avelo.'
In Maryland, activists have not found evidence that the state aviation administration subsidizes Avelo. Using a public records request, however, they have unearthed a contract which they say shows that the state can terminate Avelo's right to use BWI for any reason with a 30-day notice.
More than 2,000 people have signed a petition asking Moore, the governor who is considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, to do just that. So far, they have not heard back, according to Harvey.
A Maryland Aviation Administration spokesperson referred a request for comment to Avelo, while adding that the airline flies 'a handful of weekly commercial flights to two domestic destinations.'
In New York, Democratic state Sen. Patricia Fahy introduced legislation that could cut off the fuel tax exemption for Avelo, but it did not receive a vote before the state Legislature adjourned for the year. Unless the Legislature returns for a special session, it could be until January until lawmakers take up consideration of her bill and others again.
While it does not appear that Avelo has conducted deportations from Albany or the other airports in the state where it offers passenger flights, Fahy said she will fight to keep her bill on the legislative agenda.
'I go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning thinking what more can I do to call out what really is a travesty on our constitutional rights and the rule of law,' she said. 'Democrats need to do more. I feel that we are slowly getting more support. Or maybe, rapidly getting more support.'