Earlier this month, Avelo Airlines announced that it would no longer be doing deportation flights for ICE. The budget airline faced scrutiny when it entered into a contract with the federal agency last spring.
Avelo was the only ICE subcontractor also offering commercial tickets to travelers.
ICE has for years contracted with companies to carry out a scaled-up deportation process that involves flights from U.S. cities to various other countries. The advocacy group Human Rights First has been tracking the agency’s use of military planes, commercial carriers, and other contractors for the last several months.
Their latest report finds Avelo operated nearly one in five ICE flights between May and December — more than 1,900 flights, all told. The vast majority were domestic transfers between detention centers — and most were operated out of Mesa gateway airport. Other charters were deportation flights to Mexico, Honduras and other countries.
The report shows Avelo began scaling back its ICE flights starting in November — a few months ahead of announcing it would be closing its Arizona base for that work on Jan. 28. An Avelo spokesperson told KJZZ the contract did not consistently deliver enough revenue to overcome operational costs.
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Thousands of refugees in the U.S. lost health coverage on Oct. 1 as new Medicaid eligibility rules took effect. In Arizona, unlike in most states, even children and pregnant women are being dropped. -
On Monday, dozens of agents swarmed a stretch of private land where the activists had been camped in and around a centuries-old cottonwood tree. Contractors tore down the tree and agents made multiple arrests. -
New research shows the ancient site is much older than previously thought. In fact, it’s now confirmed to be the oldest known scientifically dated geoglyph in the Americas, 2,000 years older than the first Pyramids built in Egypt. -
Protesters have been camped out in a plot of private ranch land in Lochiel for over two months now, trying to block wall construction as it neared a towering cottonwood tree that was the last of a grove slated for destruction to make way for two, parallel steel bollard walls. -
Ahmed Soliman has no ties to Equatorial Guinea. The 30-year-old man was born in Egypt and brought to the United States. when he was just 4 years old. He grew up in Phoenix. Now he’s believed to be in a hospital in the African nation.
