Weekly Member Update - July 21, 2025

We start today looking back at Good Trouble. Hundreds of you showed up downtown on a steamy Thursday night to remember the life and work of Congressman John Lewis and to support the vulnerable local communities under attack by ICE, the Trump Administration and the Republican Party. You continue to inspire us with your commitment, your generosity and your willingness to stand together for what is right.

Now, it is time to turn our attention back to Avelo Airlines, the bargain-basement airline that has a side hustle as part of ICE’s deportation and removal air force. Avelo has been trafficking people out of the country on ICE’s behalf since the spring, and they’ve taken heat for it from the jump. Avelo’s contract with ICE drew the immediate scrutiny of Connecticut’s Attorney General, who cited red safety flags raised by the union for Avelo’s flight attendants and suggested that the company’s corporate tax breaks might be at risk. Legislation to punish corporate complicity in ICE’s ongoing terror campaign has been proposed in both Connecticut and in New York. And we the people have kept the pressure up, shining a spotlight on Avelo’s bloody hands in regular protests across the nation, including by you here in the Capital Region, rain or shine.

Avelo has been floundering financially for years, but its award winning founder and CEO Andrew Levy apparently thought that complicity with ICE might provide a profitable new revenue stream. Levy has stonewalled Connecticut officials seeking information about Avelo’s relationship with ICE and has doubled down on his “controversial” decision. But, it turns out that the American people really despise what ICE is doing to our neighbors and our communities, and Avelo’s choice to associate itself with a brutal and burgeoning secret police may not have been the soundest business decision by Levy and his team. Avelo’s brass must know that it's not a good look for the brand to be known as ICE Air, which explains why they’ve whitewashed their jets to try and hide their shame. Well, it seems that the camouflage didn’t work; last week, Avelo announced that it was ceasing its west coast operations (womp, womp) and pulling out of 10 separate markets, including its original Burbank, California hub. Guess that ICE cash wasn’t worth it after all.

So Avelo is teetering. It’s always been a failing business, and getting into bed with masked thugs who abduct day laborers, farm workers and restaurant staff hasn’t exactly helped. But the trouble is, ICE really needs Avelo. There are currently more people being detained by ICE and DHS than at any time in history, and ICE abductions in New York City, among other places, have skyrocketed. But removals and deportations aren’t keeping pace. As a result, DHS is facing ballooning costs and the conditions at detention facilities grow ever-more overcrowded and inhumane. Stories of more overcrowding and deteriorating conditions will only alienate and disgust the American people more. Thus, to manage the mass of humanity that ICE is unconstitutionally snatching off of American streets, DHS needs more concentration camps from the likes of Ron DeSantis, but it also needs more charter flights from Avelo. Simply put, ICE needs Avelo to be operational. Avelo is a pillar supporting ICE and the mass deportation agenda of King Trump and his Republican lackeys; we the people have the power to break that pillar into pieces and thereby weaken the entire edifice.

When we next gather to call Avelo out, this coming Saturday, July 26, we will once again be drawing attention to the corporate depravity of Avelo Airlines, highlighting the issue for the press, heightening public awareness and rallying our local elected officials to the cause. But we will also be asking why Albany County and its Albany County Airport Authority continue to do business with Avelo Airlines. After all, Albany County is a reliably “blue” locality largely run by elected Democrats, and we have a County Executive that once Chaired the Albany County Democratic Committee, currently serves as Vice Chair to the statewide Democratic Party, and has a demonstrated fascination with our Airport’s operations. Given all that we know, and especially given all the depravity that we have seen from ICE as it terrorizes communities across the Country, why does Albany County choose to remain affiliated with Avelo Air and, by association, with ICE itself? It cannot be the excuse that Avelo does not (yet) conduct deportation flights from Albany International because, in our view, Avelo Airlines has forfeited the right to use our public facilities, paid for by our tax dollars, when it chose to profit on the backs of our migrant neighbors. Not only should Avelo be boycotted, we think it should be expelled from our community altogether. Join us this Saturday at Albany International Airport to demand an end to the operations of Avelo Airlines within Albany County.

As we close this week’s edition, we hope some of you made the trek yesterday to see AOC trolling Elise Stefanik in Plattsburgh with Congressman Tonko. If you're looking for something closer to home, take a look at our Events Calendar to see what else is on the agenda in the lead up to our Avelo Day of Action this Saturday. Among the highlights is a growing weekly honk & wave brought to you by our new friends in Altamont, Helderberg Indivisible.

We also hope that, if you missed last week’s One Million Rising Training session, you take the time to give it a watch on YouTube. Last week was the first in a three-part training series as we keep building this movement at both a local and national level, and the next session is one week from Wednesday, July 30.

Finally, on the subject of training, we are delighted to introduce the Indivisible Albany Book Brigade. This is a book club for activists; we’ll enjoy and workshop writings on the subjects of resistance, collective action and the fight against authoritarianism. A little bit of philosophy, some political theory and a whole lot of lived-experience stories and practical lessons on how to beat back fascism. We're starting with the short-yet-seminal On Tyranny, by the great Timothy Snyder, and plan to discuss that work at our first meeting of the Book Brigade on September 15. So pick yourself up a copy of On Tyranny and sign up for the Book Brigade to help build the connections and understand the lessons that we will need in order to fight for our democracy and our American way of life.