SALEM, Ore.– Protesters with signs packed Salem City Council this week, as people lodged complaints about the airline serving the city.
Teacher Julisa Rodriguez was among those calling for the city to cancel its contracts with Avelo Airlines, after the company’s C.E.O. defended its deal with the federal government to conduct deportation flights out of Arizona. “Why pay for an airline, especially an airline conducting immigrant abductions when you could pay for summer programs for my students?”
“Our communities are being kidnapped,” said Alex Varon, a lifelong Salem resident. “If they crash, they have to save the I.C.E. agents. They can’t save the people in there. There’s women and children, and I’m not making this up. This is true. This is how it looks in an Avelo flight when people are getting deported.”…