Activists Are Fighting Tax Subsidies for Airline Running ICE Deportation Flights

The Connecticut legislature has advanced two actions actively targeting Avelo Airlines, a previously little-known private airline that’s taken the mantle of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda by flying deportation flights for the Department of Homeland Security.

In early May, the state’s legislature advanced a bill that bans companies engaged in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation flights from business with state agencies, and dramatically and purposely did not extend a seemingly insignificant (but actually consequential) fuel tax exemption, all of which impact one company most significantly: Avelo Airlines.

As of May 12, the company is the only known commercial airline contracting with ICE to carry out deportation flights — including those carrying U.S. citizens and green card holders. Avelo is already under financial pressure, even though it has already signed for this tainted contract and money, it’s also still desperately trying to raise $100 million to stay afloat, meaning these additional local-level blowbacks will have real financial consequences.

If the bill passes, it could jeopardize Avelo’s contracts with institutions like the University of Connecticut, which includes a partnership for their athletics department: tickets for travel, partnerships for events and branding at UConn stadiums. Meanwhile, the loss of the fuel tax exemption will cost the company. But it doesn’t stop there — Connecticut’s attorney general has also threatened investigations.

These pointed actions follow weeks of organizing by students, workers, and other community members, joined by local politicians and even the president of the State Senate. The protests are rooted in a singular concern: Connecticut taxpayers shouldn’t subsidize government-sanctioned kidnapping.

These voices don’t stop in the Nutmeg State. Protesters are active in over a dozen cities across the country, and these protests are why local politicians and Avelo customers are responding. For instance, Avelo enjoys a fuel tax break in Delaware up for renewal this year, and even though Avelo is the only commercial airline in the state, the governor has said he’s looking for alternatives specifically because of Avelo’s contracting for deportation flights following local pressure.

The company also enjoys local subsidies in places like Scranton, Pennsylvania; Lakeland, Florida; and even the Delaware River and Bay Authority. Avelo has also partnered with universities around the country, like Yale and Quinnipiac, with arrangements that vary but are similar to the UConn collaboration — all while receiving incentives and tourism funds from places like Salt Lake City, Utah, and Salem, Oregon. Community members and their representatives are now taking stock and asking: Are our tax dollars helping deport people — sometimes without court hearings — even in defiance of federal court orders?

The financial blows could keep coming, because Avelo already has tough competition. Tens of thousands have signed petitions and pledges committing to boycott Avelo. The airline flies out of over 50 destinations around the country, but many passengers are looking at other companies that fly similar routes but have chosen not to profit off of abduction and the morally and legally corrupt work of aiding ICE.

The reasons for these boycotts and protests are obvious: the abuse of taxpayer dollars; avoidance of the law; and notably, the experience of these flights themselves. A ProPublica report revealed horrifying conditions on prior Avelo deportation flights. Detainees are shackled for hours. There’s little to no training for staff. The operations are cloaked in secrecy.

The airline’s flight attendants are speaking out because of concerns around passenger health and safety. These barely trackable routes operate in the shadows — removing people to send them to countries they aren’t even from, sometimes without notifying families or lawyers.

When pressed, Avelo has said it took the ICE contract to save the company and protect jobs. But that justification rings hollow when the result is tearing families apart and potentially harming legal residents, all while placing the company’s own workers in traumatizing conditions.

Now, concerned people across the country are making it clear: Choosing to enable ICE and profiting off of abductions doesn’t save your business — it might sink it. Protests are growing, and this is no fringe movement. It includes students, retirees, faith communities, politicians and aviation workers. Groups like the national network Defend and Recruit, the Coalition to Stop Avelo, and many local immigrant rights and broader social justice groups around the country are organizing local and national actions to expand the movement, too.

These are unprecedented times. But the reason we’re seeing responses from state legislatures is due to bottom-up pressure. This mirrors what I’ve seen work in my decades in community and worker organizing fighting exploitative companies. I’ve seen contracts dropped and policy changes from massive multinational corporations and small local companies that abuse workers and exploit immigrants because local people organized, and it’s especially possible when the company is already so vulnerable.

We know these actions can work, but if we want to stop Avelo, we need more of them, in more places, and at more of the points that help the company stay solvent. It’s not just about ticket sales — it’s also about schools, jobs, taxes and tourism. Strategic actions, like these protests in key locations impact a company’s ability to make money and raise funds. We’ve stopped immoral corporations before, thanks to combinations of local outrage and protests, as well as efforts to pressure local governments and key institutions like universities to cut off ties, end subsidies and demand more from these companies. And that means we can do it again.

We already know Avelo isn’t the only airline option. And its complicity in the Trump administration’s deportation agenda means public dollars are propping up likely illegal ICE actions. To respond to this increasingly horrific and immoral immigration system, we need to identify every choke point. That includes setting up ICE watch groups, educating our communities on their rights, ensuring workplaces and institutions are prepared to protect the Fourth Amendment — and targeting corporations profiting from this cruelty.

Avelo recently issued a statement saying, “When our country calls and requests assistance our practice is to say yes.” But we are the country. And we say no. Let’s show them what we refuse to accept.