CRASH LANDING

‘Financially Strapped’ Airline Slammed Over ‘Blood Money’ ICE Contract

The budget carrier has provided around 10 percent of deportation flights for ICE.

Avelo Airlines is facing a growing backlash for helping the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign by providing flights for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to ship migrants off U.S. soil. The budget carrier is “financially strapped” and took the ICE contract out of “essentially, desperation,” Matthew Boulay, an organizer with the advocacy organization Coalition to Stop Avelo, told The Intercept. “It’s blood money. And now they are finding, I think, unexpected resistance and protest.” Avelo has provided about 10 percent of deportation flights for ICE and 20 percent of ICE flights overall since securing a contract with the agency in May, according to researcher Tom Cartwright. Now activists are pressuring elected officials to cut off subsidies and airport leases for the airline until it ends the contract. “There is such a deep need right now for anybody in power to stand up to Trump in a meaningful way and do something real, do something with a little bit of guts behind it,” organizer Ryan Harvey told The Intercept. “And this is an easy one, because they can just do it.” President Donald Trump has made it a mission to deport 1 million migrants per year.