Houston Airlines Halt ICE Deportations: Protests and Revenue Loss?
Did human rights protests or lower revenues force Houston-based Avelo Airlines to halt ICE deportations under the Trump administration? The story changes depending on who tells it.
Avelo Airlines, citing insufficient and unpredictable revenue at an operational base, plans to restructure its broader networks. Houston-based Avelo Airlines will stop deportation flights for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), close its base in Mesa, Arizona, and cut jobs, according to news reports.
ICE Deportations
The airline began flying ICE deportation charters in May 2025 under a subcontract (via CSI Aviation). The airline operated primarily from its Mesa Gateway base in Arizona.
“Avelo will close the base at AZA on January 27 and will conclude all participation in the DHS charter program. The program provided short-term benefits but ultimately did not deliver enough consistent and predictable revenue to overcome its operational complexity and costs,” a spokesperson for the budget carrier told WFAA.
Adding to its woes, Avelo airlines also faced public protests and backlash, including boycotts and political pressure from advocacy groups and lawmakers over its participation in deportation flights.
“Avelo Airlines made the decision to end its contracts with the Department of Homeland Security because people organized,” said Tabitha sookdeo, executive director of Connecticut Students for a Dream and the Self-reliant’s 2025 New havener of the Year. “There is power in our dollar. People said that we will not accept seeing human beings flown out of our communities in chains.”
In New York, Sen. Patricia Fahy,the bill sponsor,pointed to the SAFE AIR Act as a way to block state resources from aiding removals that violate due process rights. She said, “The Trump administration’s attacks on due process, the Constitution, and the courts should trouble every American,” and argued the bill would ensure New York facilities and resources do not “facilitate removals that violate an individual’s right to due process under the U.S.Constitution.”
Fahy called due process “the bedrock of our democracy.” She said the bill sends a message to contractors: “If you want to do business with New York state,you must respect the rule of law,and the Constitutional rights afforded to every person on American soil.”
Daniel Butterworth, executive director of RISSE in Albany, supported the effort. He said the bill would “hold to account those corporate actors enabling illegal deportations.”
Additional ICE Operations Closed
Arizona is not the only operational base to close. Avelo Airlines officials agreed to end deportation flights at raleigh-Durham (RDU) and Wilmington, North Carolina (ILM), though it will still serve those cities, and the company says it plans to open a base in McKinney in 2026. avelo Airlines signed a five-year lease to operate out of the McKinney airport (TKI) in December.
“Concurrent wit