Protesters rallying against budget airline's ICE deportation flights picket outside SRQ

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Local protesters against national immigration policy turned their attention to a budget airline carrying out deportation flights Saturday.
Approximately 30 people gathered at the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport to protest Avelo Airlines' contract with Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to carry out deportation flights. The demonstration was part of a nationwide effort opposing Avelo, which saw groups in around 30 cities where Avelo operates picket near their airports to protest the contract.
The demonstration was organized by a number of local and state activist groups like the Democratic Women's Club of Sarasota County, Indivisible Manatee and the Florida Valkyries, a statewide social justice organization. Collin Piper, a member of the Valkyries, said protesters were responding to both the Avelo contract and President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration policy, which has spurred an uptick in ICE activity.
'Avelo is the issue. They are complicit,' Piper said. 'But the bigger issue is they're trying to remove the right of due process from the constitution.'
Avelo signed a deal with the Department of Homeland Security worth around $150 million in April. Three Boeing 737-800 aircrafts began flying from Arizona's Mesa Gateway Airport May 12. It's unclear how many have flown since then, and it's also unknown whether any of these deportation flights have flown from SRQ. The airport did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
Avelo flies two nonstop routes — one to New Haven, Connecticut, and one to Wilmington, Delaware — from SRQ. The airline is billed as a low-budget carrier with nonstop routes to major and mid-major cities − the kind of flights that have spurred significant growth at SRQ in recent years.
Avelo has framed its contract with ICE as a financial necessity, as it brought investment bank Jeffries Group LLC to help it raise around $100 million to ease recent financial struggles. Avelo founder and CEO Andrew Levy said the contract was 'too valuable not to pursue,' Connecticut's Middletown Press reported.
'We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic. After significant deliberations, we determined this charter flying will provide us with the stability to continue expanding our core scheduled passenger service and keep our more than 1,100 Crewmembers employed for years to come," Levy said in a statement.
The Stop Avelo Coalition − a collection of activists, legislators and social justice groups piling the pressure on the airline − has called on a nationwide boycott of the airline. Saturday's string of demonstrations were the latest in a list of efforts the coalition has made to raise awareness of the contract.
Protesters at SRQ lined University Parkway across from the airport, wielding signs and chanting as cars whizzed past. 'Hey hey, ho ho, Avelo Airlines got to go,' and, 'Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here,' rang out through bullhorns as the protest lingered for around two hours.
Valkyries founder Bryson Holtzer said the protest was a call to ICE for more transparency amid nationwide raids, like one that occurred at a Tallahassee construction site May 29. It was one of Florida's largest since Trump announced aggressive immigration policy at the beginning of his term this year, with ICE detaining more than 100 people.
'We definitely want to reinstate due process,' Holtzer said. 'We'd like ICE to be more transparent with what they're doing, how they're collecting people, where they're sending them.'
Demonstrators are hopeful public pressure will persuade Avelo to back out of its contract and stop the flights. Though the long-term goal of these protests is immigration reform at the national level, attendees of Saturday's event said getting Avelo's attention is an important step in the immediacy.
Chris Kilmer, a Sarasota resident, said he hopes the nationwide displays send the message that Avelo customers oppose the flights.
'What Avelo Airlines is doing, it's wrong,' Kilmer said. 'They're deporting people without due process. For some people, it's a death sentence.'
Contact Herald-Tribune Reporter Heather Bushman at [e-mail]. Follow her on Twitter @hmb_1013.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Protesters rally against Avelo Airline's ICE contract outside SRQ