Avelo Airlines sent its first flight out of Mesa Gateway Airport on Monday to aid in the Trump administration’s deportation effort.
Protesters gathered near the airport in Phoenix, Arizona, to condemn the flights. Avelo faced backlash after it announced its contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to charter deportation flights. A petition calling for the end of the contract has reached over 37,000 signatures.
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This “long-term charter program” includes three Boeing 737-800 planes out of the airport. Further details of the contract, such as the cost or destination of deportation flights, have not been published.
Additionally, Avelo is a private company, and its finances are not publicly available.
“We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic,” Avelo CEO Andrew Levy said in a statement at the time the contract was finalized.
New Haven, Connecticut, also saw some protesters demonstrate at the Tweed New Haven Airport, where Avelo has a passenger route. New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker called the decision to cooperate with ICE “deeply disappointing and disturbing.”
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“For a company that champions themselves as ‘New Haven’s hometown airline,’ this business decision is antithetical to New Haven’s values,” Elicker said in a statement.
ICE is pursuing further private contracts to service new facilities, as well as for security, medical support, and more, for a price of $45 billion. Its newest detention center is a 1,800-bed facility in Baldwin, Michigan, at the former North Lake Correctional Facility.