Clergy, Immigrant Rights Advocates Hold Rally At Tweed In Protest Of Avelo Air Deportation Involvement

NEW HAVEN, CT — "These are our neighbors—some New Haven mothers have been taken by masked, armed men in plainclothes—even in front of their children."

John Lugo of Unidad Latina en Acción is among those who will be part of a Good Trouble/Boycott Avelo Rally at Tweed New Haven Airport to denounce Avelo Airlines’ "collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement."

"There is no due process. We cannot condone Avelo’s decision to make money from our neighbors’ suffering. This is personal," Lugo said.

Thursday at 5:30 p.m., a coalition of immigrants’ rights groups, faith leaders and civil rights groups will gather at Tweed.

Bishop John Selders, Pastor Josh Pawelek, and President of the National Immigration Law Center Kica Matos and others will address what they call the "moral and ethical crisis" posed by Avelo’s decision to partner with ICE as part of a national 'Good Trouble' movement, with hundreds of events across the country marking the fifth anniversary of Congressman John Lewis’s passing.

The rally will mark 66 days since Avelo began operating private deportation flights under ICE contract.

Organized in the spirit of Lewis and his legacy of nonviolent protest and “good trouble,” the event will draw attention to what organizers describe as egregious human rights abuses. Protesters allege that Avelo is enabling mass deportations without due process, including separating families and traumatizing children.

"John Lewis represented the best of this nation. From his first arrest for sitting at a ‘whites only’ lunch counter in Nashville in 1960 to his last arrest as a congressman supporting immigration reform in 2013, it is fitting to honor this civil rights icon with a protest denouncing a commercial airline profiting from human suffering," Matos said.

Sponsors incude Unidad Latina en Acción, CT Shoreline Indivisible, CT Students for a Dream, Moral Monday CT, The National Coalition to Stop Avelo, Middlesex Immigrant Rights Alliance, CT Citizen Action Group, New Haven Federation of Teachers, CT Faith-based Immigrant Support Network, and the National Immigration Law Center.