Weekly Member Update - January 12, 2026

Written By Indivisible Albany Team

The Capital Region continues to astound and inspire us. On barely more than 24 hours notice, well more than 1,000 of you mobilized onto the streets of Colonie to demand justice for Renee Nicole Good and the dozens of others that have lost their lives to ICE, and to call for our local and state leaders to do any- and everything in their power to protect our communities from a malevolent secret police and to insist on full accountability for Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino, Stephen Miller and every other individual responsible for the lawless thugs terrorizing American cities in the name of our federal government. And it wasn’t just Colonie, either; on Saturday, thousands more hit the streets of Saratoga, Glens Falls, Schuylerville, Salem, Granville and Greenwich. Then, come Sunday, our friends in Schenectady turned out another 500+. This was hardly a local phenomenon, as hundreds of thousands were in the streets across the Country, united in solidarity and against the war that the Trump Administration is waging against migrant communities and, increasingly, against American cities writ large. And, if you think calling it a “war” is hyperbolic, take a close look at what is happening in Minnesota. Not only is ICE shooting American women in the face with apparent impunity, the occupying force of federal agents on the streets of Minnesota reportedly outpaces the number of real police officers in Minneapolis/St. Paul. On Sunday, Bovino’s Border Patrol goons were fulfilling JD Vance’s warning, closing city blocks and going door-to-door looking for people to abduct, only days after the very same group of stormtroopers attacked a high school. As a result of ICE’s invasion, Minnesota businesses are shuttered and schools are closed. Meanwhile, the federal government is imposing economic sanctions against the sovereign State of Minnesota, fraying the very ties that bind the Union by unjustifiably withholding billions of dollars in federal funding because of a video made by a 23-year-old YouTuber. So, while the Ice Out for Good protests were uplifting and encouraging, it is clear that there is much, much more will need to be done to pull our Country back from the precipice of full-blown fascism.

Here is some more local reporting on this weekend’s protests:

Fortunately, we had a bit of a win this past week to remind us, once again, that collective action can move mountains. Our nemesis Avelo Airlines — the bargain-basement air carrier that profits by tearing families apart — finally caved to public pressure this past week and announced that it would no longer be conducting deportation flights on behalf of ICE/DHS. In an email to employees obtained by CNBC, Avelo CEO David Levy explained their rationale:

“We moved a portion of our fleet into a government program which promised more financial stability but placed us in the center of a political controversy,” Levy said, “The program provided short-term benefits but ultimately did not deliver enough consistent and predictable revenue to overcome its operational complexity and costs.”

Let’s not pretend that Levy and Avelo had some sort of epiphany of conscience here; after all, shortly before ending its relationship with ICE, Avelo effectively sold the six 737s that it had been using for deportation flights to DHS itself, thereby taking one last bag of money from ICE while giving DHS the means to continue its deportation barrage without Avelo as the middleman. Nonetheless, Levy’s statement makes clear that the money that they had received from ICE was not enough to overcome the losses they had incurred as a consequence of working with ICE. So Levy is essentially conceding that months of public protests by you and our friends all across the Country had the desired effect. You did this; for the better part of nine months, you stood in the rain, you stood in the cold and you stood in the summer sun and looked so good doing it, the Washington Post used your picture as the cover photo for its Avelo reporting. So take a well deserved bow, and remember what this triumph feels like the next time that the darkness looks to envelop you.

But also realize that our work against Avelo is still not concluded. Avelo — once a fascist collaborator, always a fascist collaborator — remains unwelcome in our community. At this point, with Avelo now closing its Raleigh/Durham operations as part of its restructuring — remember that nonstop flights to Raleigh/Durham was the hook that brought Avelo to Albany in the first place — Avelo’s future at Albany International appears uncertain. But, as long as Avelo remains in our community, we will work against them. So we will continue to press the Albany County Legislature to ban County employees from using Avelo for County business, and we will also continue to lobby the City of Albany to end Avelo’s sponsorship of City events. And finally, we continue to support Senator Patricia Fahy’s efforts to enact the Safe Air Act to ensure that Avelo, and any other airline, cannot use New York resources to deprive individuals of due process as part of ICE’s terror campaign.

Speaking of legislation, be reminded that there is a rally at the Capitol this morning in support of the enactment of the New York for All Act. And, West Capitol Park outside the Capitol will be the scene of our Three Kings Day Vigil of Hope and Solidarity for Immigrant Neighbors at 5:00 tomorrow evening.

Finally, we are delighted to announce that our next Monthly Member Meeting will be held at a new location within the Albany City limits! Join us at 6:00 pm on Monday, February 9 at the Love Albany Center (pictured below), at 8 Kate Street in the City’s Delaware neighborhood (map below). And, for our first Member Meeting of 2026, we’ll be presenting Indivisible Albany’s Forum on the Police State: What the Flock? This will be a discussion about the widespread proliferation of Flock camera systems, including throughout the Capital District, as we launch our public education campaign about how Flocks work, where they are, how the data is retained and, more importantly, how this data is being funneled to federal agencies such as ICE to target and track immigrant communities. We will also discuss actions that you can take to fight back against the installation of Flock cameras and to demand accountability for those already in use. We think this will be an extremely informative session and we hope you can join us.

 
Indivisible Albany Team
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Weekly Member Update - January 5, 2026