Shame can be effective, even if not instantaneously. 

Amid growing backlash to the Trump administration’s immigration policies, a Texas-based airline is apparently ending its part in deporting millions of immigrants from the United States. 

Avelo Airlines has faced a deluge of condemnation and negative press over its decision to aid the Trump administration’s racist and xenophobic anti-immigrant crackdown by flying arrestees out of the country after they’d been nabbed. And according to CNBC, the company’s CEO informed employees Tuesday night the airline will stop flying deportation flights for the government — a move that comes as it also cuts commercial flights and reduces flight head counts. 

The email makes reference to the political revolt Avelo has faced, which has included calls for boycotts. 

According to CNBC: 

‘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,’ CEO Andrew Levy said late Tuesday in an email to employees, which was seen by CNBC. ‘The program provided short-term benefits but ultimately did not deliver enough consistent and predictable revenue to overcome its operational complexity and costs,’ Levy wrote. Avelo said it would close its base in Mesa, Arizona, as ICE flights end. ICE didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

CNBC reported the flight attendants’ union representing Avelo workers celebrated the move, saying, “We’ve faced far too much change at our airline including operating certain flights we didn’t originally sign up for.” Union representatives reportedly added that they’re “hopeful that with the end of the ICE flying and new financing the future is more stable for Flight Attendants at Avelo.”

All of this will be welcome news to the people who’ve voiced their outrage over the Avelo arrangement. But the announcement should not fool anyone into believing Avelo’s executives suddenly developed some sort of bleeding heart for the humane treatment of immigrants or ICE’s other arrestees. What seems more likely is that a corporation on rocky financial footing extracted all it could from its widely decried partnership with the feds — and split when the relationship no longer bore fruit.

In fact, there’s still an open question as to whether and how ICE could benefit from Avelo’s recent announcement. The company is selling off numerous planes that it counted among its fleet, and multiple outlets reported the planes were given to a company that does business with the Department of Homeland Security.

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