Road Race Drops Avelo Sponsorship

By Laura Glesby, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — After a local backlash, the Faxon Law New Haven Road Race has severed ties with Avelo Airlines after initially accepting a sponsorship from the company, which is under contract to operate deportation flights for the Trump administration.

The road race’s board convened for an ad hoc meeting on Wednesday — and voted to heed a group of immigrant rights activists calling on the race to cease affiliation with the airline.

The annual road race — which encompasses a 5K, a 20K, and a half-marathon — has been a beloved tradition for many New Haveners for nearly half a century. The 48th annual race is slated to take place on Sept. 1.

Avelo Airlines has sponsored the event since 2022. Until late Wednesday afternoon, the race’s website listed the airline as one of the top three sponsors of the event.

Yet Avelo has faced a boycott and community pushback for months after agreeing to fly planes for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s deportation efforts.

“On May 12, Avelo began deportation flights from Phoenix – Mesa Airport, a development that disappointed many board members and triggered public outcry in our local community,” wrote race director John Bysiewicz in a press release sent out Wednesday afternoon.

“Following a unanimous vote, the Board has formally ended the sponsorship relationship. Effective immediately, Avelo Airlines is no longer affiliated with the Faxon Law New Haven Road Race.”

According to Bysiewicz, the airline had agreed to support the race with a $5,000 contribution this year. “We will figure out a way to make up that funding,” he said in a phone interview on Wednesday.

A representative of Avelo did not respond to a request for comment in time for this article’s publication.

The New Haven Immigrants Coalition launched a Change.org petition calling for the race to end affiliation with the airline on Monday. The petition, which gathered 140 signatures, stated that the race’s board “voted in June to allow Avelo to sponsor the race.”

Bysiewicz said in fact that the board’s most recent meeting took place May, prior to Avelo’s first deportation flight on May 12. (The airline’s contract with the Trump administration was first reported on in April.)

“People became more aware of what was going on, of what’s happened with the ICE raids,” Bysiewicz said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “They actually saw what happened, versus a concept of what could happen.”

That increased awareness prompted Wednesday’s board meeting, Bysiewicz said, at which board members unanimously voted to drop Avelo’s sponsorship.

“The race has also given thousands of dollars in the last two years to IRIS,” Bysiewicz said. IRIS is one of several non-profits for which the race is fundraising this year, as has been the case in years past.

Fair Haven advocate Lee Cruz, whose two kids have run in the race in years past, had joined fellow immigrant rights activists in calling out the road race’s partnership with Avelo.

On Wednesday, he said that the board’s unanimous decision “definitely means, without a doubt that, we’ll be attending” the race this year. “We will definitely be attending and supportive, and I’ll be reaching out to some of my business contacts and encouraging people to be sponsors.”

He argued that the city should respond to the race’s decision with extra support in order to send a message. “We should look to exceed [Avelo’s original contribution] — with the goal being to signal to all New Haveners that the rest of New Haven has you if you stand up for those among us who are the most vulnerable.”

"The Fear Is Real, & It Is Always There"

The decision comes at a time when ICE appears to be ramping up immigration enforcement in New Haven. ICE agents have captured and detained several New Haven residents, at times concealing their faces behind masks, refusing to disclose the reason behind particular arrests, and allegedly denying legal rights belonging to detainees.

Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller (who happens to be married to Cruz, and similarly connected to the race by way of her kids) said that the race’s partnership with Avelo up until Wednesday “underscores how removed many people are from the acute pain of deportation that is impacting our community now on pretty much a daily basis.”

Miller said she has noticed a shift this summer in Fair Haven, which is home to many immigrants, since ICE enforcement has ostensibly increased. More community members are fearful of leaving their homes, she said. “Every day, it seems, there’s a new story of somebody who either lives in the city or is connected to somebody in the city” being taken by ICE.

“We knew it was coming. It’s been a slow creep that’s starting to feel more like a boil,” Miller said. “We are really feeling it now. The fear is real, and it is always there. There feels like there’s no escape from it.”

“But our networks are strong,” she added. “We can’t prevent anything, but we are responding.”

“On a day that’s meant to reflect the best of who we are, we should not align ourselves with the kidnapping and forced removal of our neighbors. We can’t celebrate community while turning a blind eye to cruelty,” said East Rock/Fair Haven Alder Caroline Smith, who has run in the race.

The road race's website before and after Wednesday's board meeting.

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.