KEPW joins local groups endorsing Avelo boycott

Presenter: Covering the Avelo Airlines boycott June 1 for KEPW, Street Reporter Jana Thrift:

Jana Thrift (KEPW): We’re boycotting Avelo. Nobody should be flying an airline that’s willing to violate human rights and separate families in our community like this. 

[00:00:18] Presenter: With the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Rob Fisette:

[00:00:22] Rob Fisette: We put out a statement about this when the Yale Daily News broke the story like a month and a half ago. And then momentum has been picking up around this issue, to the point that it’s now a national campaign.

[00:00:34] And in between there were several groups here locally that expressed interest concern anger like all of you and wanted to help organize a campaign to get Avelo out of Eugene; Avelo out of EUG.

[00:00:47] Indivisible Eugene-Springfield been doing a lot of great work organizing our community; the Refugee Sanctuary Group at the Unitarian Universalist Church is involved in organizing the event; a local branch of Showing Up for Racial Justice (or SURJ) also doing a lot of great organizing work in our community. And we’ve been endorsed by several additional organizations for this campaign: KEPW PeaceWorks, United for Immigrant Justice, and others…

[00:01:14] Avelo said two things. First they said they’re doing this to stabilize their business, to be able to expand their passenger service and take care of their employees. We reject that. We reject that. Second, they said, ‘Listen guys. This is not political.’ They said, ‘It’s not political. We did this also during the Biden administration.”

[00:01:40] Well, (clears throat) and I’ll give a quick fact check about that. That’s true. They did run deportation flights during the Biden administration.

[00:01:51] And so I think we all kind of owe it to ourselves and owe it to our neighbors to kind of reflect on this fact, like, why we didn’t know, why we weren’t out here then, as we think about why we’re out here now and why we’re ready to commit to this sort of campaign at this point. Like, what that energy is that’s mobilized us.

[00:02:07] Definitely one of the things that’s different is that the press cares a lot. The press didn’t do a lot of reporting about Avelo Airlines in the Biden administration. But they’re doing it now.

[00:02:20] So, the media then picked up this story, and we got a response from Eugene Airport Assistant Director Andrew Martz. Andrew Martz’s statement was tragically pathetic, I’m sorry to say. He said that ‘Avelo is not changing their business here in Eugene. They’re not running deportation flights out of Eugene. We don’t think there’s anything for us to do.’

[00:02:46] It really blew my mind. And I couldn’t really wrap my head around it. If you have some company that its business in New Jersey is to just murder a bunch of people, and then they come to Oregon and do business and they’re not murdering people here, I don’t see anyone saying, ‘Well, they’re not doing it here, so it’s actually fine.’

[00:03:07] The city and the airport have thrown up their hands and say, ‘There’s nothing we can do, we could get in legal trouble if we do this with the FAA, if we try to throw them out.’

[00:03:16] Now we understand that when we have demands and we bring them to our political leaders, it is very common for them to say first, ‘There’s nothing we can do, our hands are tied.’

[00:03:27] And that’s the point of political organization. That’s the point of making a political argument, is: making them understand that that’s not an acceptable answer to us.

[00:03:37] They’re on the defensive about this. They’re putting out statements all the time, like, ‘Hey, you know, this is just business.’ Even the city people, they’re saying, ‘Hey, listen, really, there’s nothing we can do.’ And it’s really important that we examine that logic, especially in the context of this week when the Trump administration put out its sort of ‘naughty boy’ jurisdiction lists.

[00:04:00] I don’t know if you all saw this. They put out a list of all the ‘naughty boy’ jurisdictions that have strong sanctuary protections. On that list are the state of Oregon, on that list is Lane County, and on that list is the city of Eugene.

[00:04:26] And so we have to understand how they’re going to use the federal leverage to try to get us to eliminate those protections. The way they’re going to do that is by pressuring us financially and legally. They’re going to say, ‘If you don’t get rid of your sanctuary protections, we’re not giving you this money.’ Or: ‘We’re going to sue you. We’re taking you to court.’

[00:04:46] So they threaten you legally, they threaten you financially. And if you’re a state, a county, or a city with strong sanctuary protections and then someone threatens you if you don’t remove those policies, and you just say, ‘There’s nothing we can do. We don’t have a choice. We have to remove them,’ you are not living in a city, county, or state that have strong sanctuary protections. You’re living in a county, city, or state whose leaders will give in once the pressure is on.

[00:05:16] It’s very easy to say the right thing when the pressure is not on. This is the pressure coming on, and that’s the kind of pressure that we need to build against the city, against the airport, about Avelo Airlines, because we know they’re also deporting our neighbors in the most violent ways.

[00:05:32] Many of you may know the Rev. Jen for the Unitarian Universalist Church:

[00:05:35] The Rev. Jen Youngsun Ryu: Hey, everybody, I am the Rev. Jen Youngsun Ryu. I am a Unitarian Universalist minister. I am your neighbor and I am an immigrant…

[00:05:54] I believe that most of us agree that everybody, regardless of immigration status, possesses inherent worth. Everybody deserves compassion, mercy, and dignity because we are all human beings born of this earth and endowed with inalienable rights.

[00:06:30] Eugene is a community that strives to welcome everybody. But when Avelo Airlines, the only commercial airline contracted to fly deportation flights for ICE, when they operate out of our airport, that welcome rings hollow.

[00:06:55] Avelo is profiting from deporting people. Many times they are in shackles before their asylum cases can even be heard. And while these deportation flights don’t literally depart from Eugene, Avelo’s partnership with ICE betrays the values of our city. It also betrays the stated values of the Eugene Airport itself. And so we say to them, not in our town, not in our airport, and not in our name.

[00:07:50] Whether you are a person of faith or no faith, this is a moral moment. Let this be a moment not only of protest, but also of promise. A promise not to turn away. A promise to not let cruelty become normalized. A promise to act. And so we unite in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors. We unite for human dignity and we will not be silent.

[00:08:37] Rob Fisette: All right, thank you. Thank you, the Rev. Jen. So next I want to bring up our next speaker. Kriscia Rivas is an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Lane County Immigrant Defense Network:

[00:09:05] Kriscia Rivas (PSL, Lane County Immigrant Defense Network): When I heard that Avelo Airlines, a company that markets itself as family-friendly, is working with ICE to run deportation flights, I felt sick…

[00:09:14] I know many of us here care about due process. We care that people should have at least the chance to plead their case, to be treated fairly, to have a case in court. And I agree. Nobody should be snatched out of the street, disappeared in the middle of the night, or deported in secret without so much as a hearing. That is a basic violation of dignity and justice.

[00:09:37] But I also need us to think bigger than that. Because if every box is checked, even if every piece of paper is perfectly filed, even if the judge says this deportation is legal, that doesn’t make it right. Legality is not the same as justice. We have to ask ourselves, is it ever just to tear a mother from her child? To shackle pregnant women and fly them out of the country like cargo? To tell a person they don’t belong here simply because of where they were born?

[00:10:12] That’s why it’s so shameful that Avelo Airlines, an airline that markets itself as being family-friendly, community-oriented, has chosen to partner with ICE to carry out deportation flights. Avelo is the only commercial airline to have done this. They’re helping ICE tear families apart and they’re profiting from it.

[00:10:31] They operate these flights with people shackled, barely able to move, and unable to get up, even to go to the bathroom. They do this knowing that if there’s any kind of emergency, that everyone, everyone on board except the crew, is almost guaranteed to die.

[00:10:51] Flight attendant whistleblowers have said this explicitly. We need to hold Avelo accountable. Boycotting Avelo is the obvious choice. Boycott Avelo and spread the word to everyone you know to do the same. They made this choice to profit financially. We have to make them suffer financially for it.

[00:11:13] So step one, the thing most in our control, whether they happen to have the most convenient schedule or the cheapest flights or anything like that, do not give them your business, please. That is first.

[00:11:26] We know that in our society, companies take actions that will make profit. They are legally required to maximize profit. We need a system that put people and planet over profit. But in the meantime, other companies need to know that if they engage in this disgusting business and also want our business, that it will hurt financially. Please make your voice heard.

[00:11:48] Presenter: Rob Fisette:

[00:11:49] Rob Fisette: As of June 1, those required to report in person for check-ins with ICE will no longer be able to do so at the local offices in Eugene and in Medford. Instead, all personal check-ins will be transferred to Portland.

[00:12:04] The partial closure of local ICE offices will only create increased hardship in terms of time, logistics for accompaniment and transportation, and additional financial burdens on those who need to check in with ICE in person.

[00:12:20] We urge you to contact your congressional representatives and senators to alert them about the situation. Making ICE offices more inaccessible for in-person check-ins is malicious, creating significant additional barriers for individuals trying to meet requirements.

[00:12:35] (If you’re someone who has extra time and is able to actually transport people to and from Portland and back, these are really important programs that a lot of organizations, like, every day, in and out, are doing that sort of work. And if you’re able to get connected to something like that, then check in with me after.)

[00:12:52] The last thing I would say is that you know Avelo Airlines is not unique. There are a lot of companies that profit in this disgusting space. They profit off of the deportation and detention of our neighbors and off of this machine, off of this system. And a lot of them are not public-facing companies like Avelo that we can just boycott, right?

[00:13:10] A lot of them are like the GEO Group. They run detention centers. GEO Group purchased, you know, a company that does ankle monitors. They’re like, ‘Well, if we stop detaining people, then we will lose our source of profit.’

[00:13:24] So they acquired a different company that produces ankle monitors, Behavioral Interventions Inc. They started as a company in 1978 creating tracking devices for cattle and then they transitioned into making tracking devices for humans and then they were purchased by GEO Group who was, like, extremely excited about these opportunities with the Trump administration to do more deportation.

[00:13:51] So keep all of these things in mind. Thank you so much for coming. Please share the word about the campaign. And let’s make it a summer that Avelo will always live to regret.

[00:14:03] Presenter: Local activists launch a boycott of Avelo Airlines. Field recordings for KEPW News by Jana Thrift and Todd Boyle. You can watch the original video on Todd Boyle’s YouTube channel.