Why are tens of thousands of people boycotting this little-known airline?

A little-known airline is facing backlash from tens of thousands of people after the company agreed to carry out deportation flights for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Around 30,000 people have signed a petition to boycott Avelo Airlines over the company’s contract with the federal agency tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation. The boycott of the Texas-based airline comes as federal agents carrying out Trump’s sweeping immigration enforcement actions put women in detention centers described as “hell on earth,” detain people legally allowed to work in the U.S. and sent a Maryland man whom a judge had barred from deportation to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The New Haven Immigrants Coalition, an immigrant rights group based in Connecticut where Avelo has a location, created the petition this week for the airline to end the federal contract. The deportation flights depart from an airport in Arizona. "We demand that AVELO AIR halt plans to carry out deportation flights in cooperation with the Trump Administration," the petition says. "We pledge to boycott the airline until they stop plans to profit off ICE flights that are tearing families and communities apart and removing some legal residents, such as Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia, with no recourse for returning to their families." Abrego Garcia is the Maryland man the Trump administration mistakenly deported to El Salvador even though he had a protective order barring his expulsion. Avelo's entry into the deportation business comes as the Trump administration needs more planes to move detainees from one state to another and then to deport them from the U.S. to other countries. Avelo announced the contract with immigration authorities in early April.<br/>