Markeshia Ricks file photo
AG Tong, at Tweed in 2019: "Deeply disappointed" in Avelo.
State Attorney General William Tong has some questions for Avelo Airlines.
Eight questions, to be precise, all in regards to why the budget airline has decided to “profit from and facilitate these atrocities” by running deportation flights for the Trump administration.
Tong issued those questions and that condemnation in a Tuesday afternoon email press release. The press release includes a link to a letter sent by Tong to Avelo Airlines CEO Andrew Levy.
The letter gives Levy until April 15 to reply, or else risk losing state support for his airline. A spokesperson for Avelo, Courtney Goff, said that the company is reviewing the letter and will communicate directly with the State of Connecticut.
Tong’s public criticism of Avelo comes in the wake of news that the budget airline will be partnering with the federal Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to charter deportation flights out of a new base in Mesa, Ariz., starting in May.
That decision has already earned the company a public rebuke from Mayor Justin Elicker, and has made Avelo the subject of an online boycott campaign organized by local immigrant rights activists. As of Tuesday afternoon, that petition had garnered more than 4,300 signatures. Avelo currently flies more than two dozen direct routes out of New Haven after making Tweed its East Coast hub in November 2021.
Levy has defended the deportation-flight contract as providing Avelo with some protection from “fluctuating fuel prices” and other “macroeconomic factors,” all in service of allowing the company “to grow our core business, which is scheduled passenger travel.”
“We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic,” Levy said through a spokesperson in a comment provided to the Independent on Monday.“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.”
Tong’s letter makes clear that public blowback to Avelo’s decision is only growing.
“As someone who has flown Avelo Airlines and has cheered Avelo’s growth in Connecticut, I am deeply disappointed to learn that Avelo may have entered into a contract to operate charter flights in service to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration Control and Enforcement Agency,” Tong’s letter begins.
“Let’s be clear what these flights are doing,” Tong continued. “These are flights separating parents from their children. These are flights where people — men, women and children — are shackled in handcuffs, waist chains and leg irons, where flight attendants have said there is no safe plan to evacuate people in an emergency.”
“Violent criminals should be arrested, prosecuted, and where appropriate, deported,” Tong added. “But Trump’s cruel and reckless deportation program has unlawfully undermined legitimate law enforcement by ensnaring innocent parents, students, and children.”
He then turned to Avelo and its decision to support Trump’s deportation regime.
“No one is forcing Avelo to operate these flights. If reporting is accurate, Avelo has freely chosen to profit from and facilitate these atrocities. The State of Connecticut has an obligation now to review this business decision and to consider the viability of our choice to support Avelo.”
He noted that Connecticut taxpayers have supported Avelo’s growth at Tweed by exempting state taxes on aviation fuel. Local and state officials have time and again traveled to Tweed to celebrate Avelo adding yet another direct route from New Haven.
“We are owed answers on Avelo’s Homeland Security contract to determine whether Avelo’s business practices can remain compatible with such state support.”
And so, Tong’s questions for Avelo. To quote them in full, they include:
1. Please provide a copy of Avelo’s contract that relates to its work for Department of Homeland Security, or its agent, contractor or subcontractor.
2. Can Avelo confirm that it will not operate deportation flights from any Connecticut airport?
3. Can Avelo confirm that it will never operate flights while non-violent passengers are in shackles, handcuffs, waist chains and/or leg irons and unable to safely evacuate in the event of an emergency?
4. Should restraint be necessary for a specific individual to protect public safety, can Avelo confirm that it will never operate a flight without a safe and timely evacuation strategy for all passengers?
5. Can Avelo confirm it will never operate flights with shackled children?
6. On Saturday, March 15, a federal judge ordered the immediate return of a deportation flight destined for El Salvador operated by GlobalX. The Trump Administration refused to comply. Can Avelo confirm that it will never operate deportation flights in defiance of such court orders?
7. Can Avelo confirm it will never operate a deportation flight involving passengers for whom there is no valid order of removal?
8. Can Avelo confirm that it will never operate a flight to deport a child born on American soil?
“Absent clear, public commitments to safety and the rule of law, the Office of the Attorney General may be forced to recommend that Connecticut rescind its support for and partnership with Avelo.”