Airline flying migrants out of U.S. sparks outrage
Avelo began flying charter flights this week on behalf of ICE from Mesa, Arizona, leading to calls for a boycott and protests across the country
Had Avelo Airlines not canceled Flight 101 from Las Vegas to Santa Rosa last Monday, I might be in jail today.
Avelo, which launched in 2021, appeared to be a likable upstart that offered flights to and from small cities like Burbank, New Haven, and, near us, Santa Rosa. It’s been a breeze to drive 30 minutes from our home to the Santa Rosa airport and fly to Vegas nonstop.
But last month, after a robust year of growth, Houston-based Avelo announced it would start flying deportation flights for the Trump administration.
A petition on Change.org reading “We won’t fly Avelo until they stop ICE flights” has more than 38,000 signatures.
The first Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flight was slated for Monday, May 12, coincidentally the day I was scheduled to fly home on Avelo from Vegas.
I’d bought my one-way flight before Avelo announced its ICE deal. (I flew a separate one-way on United from SFO to Vegas last Saturday.)
In the days leading up to my May 12 Avelo flight, I planned an action that could have gotten me arrested. More on that later.
But Avelo canceled the flight the day before I was to fly. While attending a Dead & Company show at Sphere on Sunday, I got a text from Avelo at 8:15pm.
I checked the text at the break but didn’t want to try to call Avelo from a concert. During that set break, I booked the only other nonstop from Vegas to Santa Rosa, on Alaska Airlines.
Coach was sold out so I booked a first-class seat for 25,000 miles, not cheap. I knew I could cancel if Avelo would re-book me.
I called Avelo after the show and learned their customer service support line closes at 9pm PT. Ridiculous especially on a night with a flight cancellation.
The next morning I called Avelo and was told by a robot that there were more than 100 people ahead of me and that the estimated wait time was 135 minutes (for you English majors, that’s 2 hours and 15 minutes).
I was lucky to have snagged one of the last seats on the Alaska flight. But all this raises questions.
First, if Avelo knew on Sunday it had a plane unable to fly on Monday, why couldn’t the airline get another plane from elsewhere for that flight? They had at least 17 hours to get a plane to Las Vegas.
Were they unable to find another plane because they were sending planes to Arizona to fly ICE deportation flights?
Response from Avelo
I emailed Avelo communications manager Courtney Goff who said: “We canceled XP101 LAS-STS due to a maintenance issue on the aircraft that was not able to be resolved in a timely matter. … We have a limited number of aircraft on the West Coast.”
Goff said it was a safety issue and “had nothing to do with our Mesa charter operation.” She did not address the charter flights issue in her email and said that for more information I’d have to contact the Department of Homeland Security.
The Santa Rosa-based Press Democrat has had several stories about Avelo during the past few weeks, showing the outrage expressed by local officials and protesters.
One held a sign at the Santa Rosa airport reading, “AVELO IS DISAPPEARING PEOPLE FOR TRUMP.”
Side note: I’ve spoken to several people who told me they read in The Press Democrat that Avelo is pulling out of Santa Rosa. The paper has had headlines with such phrases as “the closure of Avelo Airlines’ local hub.”
But Avelo is not ceasing operations in Santa Rosa, just reducing the number of flights and no longer basing flight crews there.
Trump’s plan to deport ‘homegrowns’ to El Salvador
Since Trump became president less than four months ago, innocent people have been deported without cause, some of them holding a Green Card. And the administration has been defying orders to bring them home.
As NPR reported on April 16, Trump has been exploring a proposal to send U.S. citizens — yes citizens — to prisons in El Salvador, with little or no due process.
Speaking at a mid-April press briefing alongside El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, Trump said: “The homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You've got to build about five more places," Trump said to Bukele, a clear reference to prisons that could house U.S. citizens.
The New York Times on May 12 had a story about how Avelo’s actions could alienate its customers, many of whom are progressives in places such as California and Connecticut, Detroit and New Orleans.
But I’ve seen minimal coverage of the moral and ethical issues. We have a president who wants to intimidate innocent people with the threat of deportation.
The Times noted that the Association of Flight Attendants said immigrants had been placed in restraints on deportation flights.
“Having an entire flight of people handcuffed and shackled would hinder any evacuation and risk injury or death,” the union said on behalf of its flight attendants. “It also impedes our ability to respond to a medical emergency, fire on board, decompression, etc. We cannot do our jobs in these conditions.”
There’s a long list of companies that aided the Nazis during the 1930s and ’40s, from Krupp which produced the Zyklon B gas to murder millions of people to Mercedes Benz which made tanks and aircrafts for the German war effort.
And now we have companies such as Avelo eagerly stepping up to do Trump’s dirty work. The Times reported that flight-tracking data showed the first deportation flight left Mesa, Arizona, on Monday morning.
Avelo: ICE deal ‘too valuable not to pursue’
An internal email obtained by the Times from Avelo founder and chief executive Andrew Levy said: “After extensive deliberations with our board of directors and our senior leaders, we concluded this new opportunity was too valuable not to pursue.”
So I had a plan. First I thought about unfurling a banner to let passengers know what Avelo is doing.
Then I had another idea, though I’m not sure if I would have had the opportunity or courage to follow through: When no one was around the public address system, I’d take the mic and announce that Avelo is proud that they’ve begun working with ICE to deport migrants from Arizona.
I’m aware of the potentially severe consequences of taking that action, but I hope I would have done my best to in some way make a statement and spread awareness about what Avelo is doing.
Avelo is issuing me a credit for the canceled flight. Maybe I’ll use it and get another chance.
Dead and Company at the Sphere. Isn’t that the most amazing thing!
Gross statement from them. Profit over all else. I was pleased to hear the airline has many new flights out of Raleigh Durham. Now I won’t go near them.