Connecticut Citizen Action Group has joined immigrant rights groups in the state to boycott Avelo Airlines, which flies out of New Haven’s Tweed Airport, and demand an end to the state tax credits and subsidies the low-cost airline received to encourage it to do business in the Nutmeg State.
Avelo is the only commercial carrier known to have contracted with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to conduct deportation flights of illegally detained immigrants. Earlier this month, Connecticut’s legislature advanced a bill that bans the state from doing business with airlines that contract with ICE.
Connecticut’s Attorney General, WIlliam Tong, has also sent two warning letters to Avelo, after increasing pressure from students, CCAG and other community groups.
“Can Avelo confirm that it will never operate flights while non-violent passengers are in shackles, handcuffs, waist chains and/or leg irons?” Tong asked in a letter to Avelo on April 8. “Can Avelo confirm that it will never operate a flight without a safe and timely evacuation strategy for all passengers?”
Throughout April and May, CCAG members have joined other community groups at the gates of Tweed Airport near New Haven to protest the flights and to call for a boycott.
