Washington, DC — Indivisible today celebrated a major victory for immigrant communities and workers after Avelo Airlines announced it will no longer operate ICE deportation flights. The decision comes after sustained, nonviolent organizing and public pressure demanding the airline stop profiting from family separation and state violence.
In response to this major victory for organizing and immigrant communities, Indivisible’s co-founder and co-executive director Ezra Levin, released the following statement:
“For months, communities across the country spoke out, organized, protested, and demanded that Avelo Airlines end its deportation flights. After months of plummeting sales and canceled commercial flights, Avelo was forced to walk away from contracts that harmed immigrant families and destabilized workers – and it’s sales. Organizing works.
“This victory belongs to immigrant communities who refused to be silent, to workers who spoke out, and to organizers who channeled this collective outrage and held Avelo accountable.
“This is not just a shift that will impact ICE operations. It is proof that when we organize strategically and collectively, we can force powerful institutions to change. Corporations do not make changes like this out of goodwill. They never have. We must continue to organize, apply pressure, and refuse to accept business as usual.
“This is not the end of the fight. ICE deportations continue to terrorize families, and corporations continue to enable them. We will keep using nonviolent organizing and public pressure to protect vulnerable communities and hold corporations accountable. But today’s announcement shows what is possible when people refuse to accept cruelty as normal.”
Indivisible’s Impact
Indivisible organizers and local groups played a key role in mobilizing public outrage, elevating the voices of immigrant families and workers, and making it impossible for Avelo to quietly profit from deportation flights. In August, Indivisible called on activists to apply public pressure on Avelo Airlines over its role in carrying out ICE deportation flights.
Groups across the country took that call to action and built their own local campaigns, expanding the effort independently – from . Their efforts centered nonviolent direct action, moral clarity, and sustained public pressure.
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ABOUT THE INDIVISIBLE PROJECT
The Indivisible Project is a registered 501(c)(4) nonprofit. Our mission is to cultivate and lift up a grassroots movement of local groups to defeat the Trump agenda, elect progressive leaders, and realize bold progressive policies. Across the nation, thousands of local groups are using the Indivisible Guide to hold their members of Congress accountable.