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Connecticut Attorney General has sent a second warning in a month to low-cost airline Avelo Airlines, informing startups that tax credits and other local assistance are at risk by agreeing to implement deportation flights for US immigration and customs enforcement.
Meanwhile, Democrats in the Connecticut Legislature are working with federal immigration authorities to expand the state’s sanctuary laws to punish businesses like Avelo.
The backlash comes after Texas-based Abelo signed an agreement earlier this month to dedicated three of the 20 planes to run deportation flights as part of a charter network known as the Ice Air. It also highlighted flight attendant fears over the treatment and safety of detainees on such flights following the report of Propobrica, cited in a letter to Abelo on April 8th. The concerns raised by airline staff included how difficult it is to evacuate people wearing wrist and ankle bondage.
“Can Abelo confirm that non-violent passengers do not operate the flight while they are laced with bondage, handcuffs, waist chains and/or leg irons?” Tong’s April 8 letter asks. “Can Avelo make sure that it will not operate flights without a safe and timely evacuation strategy for all passengers?”
Tong then issued an official statement on April 15th, repeating his concerns.
In 2022, Abelo flew a series of charters for immigration agencies prior to the current ice air contract. The flight attendants took photos of the detainees with wrist and ankle bondage. Credit: Get by Propublica
In an April 3 email to Avelo employees obtained by Propublica and other publications, CEO Andrew Levy called “too valuable” foreign contracts “too valuable” when his startup lost money and consumer confidence was declining, making Americans travel less. Abelo closed one of its bases in Sonoma County, California, and moved certain flight routes on off-peak days as resources moved into ice air. The deportation flights are based in Mesa, Arizona, and begin in May.
Abelo has a major hub in New Haven, Connecticut and recently expanded to Bradley International Airport near Hartford. In 2023, the airline won two years of fuel tax bullets from state legislators after extensive lobbying.
Last Thursday, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal was one of nearly 300 attendees at a rally outside New Haven Airport. “Abello needs to change courses,” he said. “To President Abelo: You really stepped in there.”
The public is also disputing it. An online petition seeking a boycott of Avelo unless the new ICE contract has not collected about 35,000 signatures since April 6th. Protests are spreading across cities where airlines, including Eugene, Oregon, serve the nation. Rochester, New York. Burbank, California; Wilmington, Delaware.
Ton’s letter to Abelo requested that the airline make a copy of the ice air contract. The Attorney General also pointed to a march to El Salvador, made by another charter airline GlobalX, after a federal judge ordered the plane to be turned back, asking if Avelo would deport people against court orders. Neither Ice nor GlobalX responded to Propublica’s request for comment.
Levi answered Ton in a one-page letter. In it, Levy suggested that if Connecticut wanted more information about Abelo’s ice air contract, he should submit a request for public records. (Federal statistics show that such ice requests typically take months or years for a response.)
If the Attorney General wants to learn more about the use of bondage in deportation flights, Levy should ask the Department of Homeland Security if he continues. If Tong wants to know more about evacuation requirements, he should address questions to the Federal Aviation Administration. On Avelo’s part, Levy was convinced that airline Tong is “devoted to public safety and the rule of law.”
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“No matter what administration or party affiliation,” an Abelo spokesperson told ProPublica in an email statement saying, “If our country calls our practices yes, it follows all protocols from the DHS and FAA.”
The Democrat-sponsored bill expanding Connecticut’s sanctuary law clears the House Judiciary Committee with a 29-12 party oversight vote, waiting for a full vote on the floor over strong Republican dissent. If that passes, the company, including the airline, must propose to propose doing business with the state.
Meanwhile, Abelo’s fuel tax moratorium expires on June 30th. So far, no legislation has been introduced to extend it, and activists are urging Connecticut lawmakers to die tax cuts.
