Avelo Airlines’ decision to work with the Trump administration to carry out mass deportation flights in Arizona was met with criticism this week by Democratic leaders in Connecticut, who condemned the airline for prioritizing profits over human rights.
The airline has been a growing presence in Connecticut, where it has operated its East Coast base out of Tweed New Haven Airport since 2021. However, Democratic leaders including Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven, condemned the airline’s plan to conduct deportation flights beginning next month.
“Avelo Airlines’ decision to contract with the federal government to operate deportation flights is a disgraceful capitulation to profit over humane concerns,” Looney said. “It is particularly galling that a company presenting one face in Connecticut as a partner in economic development, community engagement, and opportunity, is simultaneously presenting another in Arizona where it will now serve as a willing participant in a deportation system that often strips individuals of their dignity, security, and hope.”
Meanwhile, Attorney General William Tong wrote to the airline’s CEO, Andrew Levy, to express “deep disappointment” in the decision and to seek more information about the contract. Tong said Connecticut may need to reevaluate its partnership with Avelo.
“Let’s be clear what these flights are doing,” Tong wrote. “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. These are flights where people soil themselves because they are denied access to bathrooms. These are flights to dangerous jungle prisons in El Salvador and Guantanamo, where chained, bowed and shaved men are paraded before cameras for propaganda videos.”
In a statement to the New Haven Independent, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker described the airline’s plans as “disturbing.”
“While no one objects to deporting individuals who have committed violent crimes, it is well-documented that the Trump Administration is violating basic due process rights when it comes to our immigrant community, and we need corporations to step up and stand up to the Trump Administration’s unconstitutional, illegal and inhumane actions – not to be complicit with them,” Elicker said, according to the Independent.
Looney said the airline’s complicity reflected a troubling trend among American institutions during Trump’s second term.
“We have seen major universities compromise their commitments to academic freedom under pressure, and some of the nation’s most prestigious law firms retreat from defending civil rights and constitutional liberties when faced with political backlash or financial threat,” Looney said. “Avelo’s actions follow that same pattern—caving to government dollars at the expense of human rights.”
