'It's blood money': Voter fury erupts at airline helping Trump with deportations
Avelo Airlines has been assisting the Trump administration in providing flights for migrants set for deportation amid the president’s mass deportation policy, and now Democratic voters are pushing back, The Intercept reported Thursday.
“They’re a financially strapped company to begin with,” said Matthew Boulay, an organizer with the advocacy organization Coalition to Stop Avelo, speaking with The Intercept. “They take the ICE contract out of, essentially, desperation. It’s blood money. And now they are finding, I think, unexpected resistance and protest.”
According to Tom Cartwright, an aviation researcher and retired J.P Morgan executive, Avelo Airlines has provided 10% of deportation flights for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement since securing a contract with the agency in May, and 20% of all ICE flights overall. Cartwright has methodically tracked all deportation flights under the Trump administration.
Avelo Airlines has financially struggled over the years, a fact Democratic voters are now hoping to exploit in putting pressure on the company for assisting in Trump’s mass deportations, which has disproportionately targeted migrants with no criminal histories.
“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,” said Ryan Harvey, a Baltimore-based organizer, speaking with The Intercept. “And this is an easy one, because they can just do it.”
Another target for those seeking to pressure Avelo Airlines to stop assisting the Trump administration with its mass deportation policy are government subsidies for the company, many of which are awarded by Democrat-controlled states like New York and Delaware.
“It can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not a million, in value,” said Seth Miller, a New Hampshire state House representative, speaking with The Intercept. “When you’re running on a shoestring, it can make a huge difference.”