Chants rang out across the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport as residents, advocates, and faith leaders gathered to protest Avelo Airlines’ contract with ICE. The Houston-based airline has agreed to provide aircraft for deportation flights, prompting fierce backlash from local leaders and immigrant rights organizations.
The Western New York Coalition condemned the move, calling it a “moral failure” and a betrayal of Rochester’s values as a sanctuary city. Speakers demanded that no flights facilitating family separation or human rights violations should depart from an airport bearing the name of abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
As a City Council candidate, I joined the protest to make our message clear: “Kidnapping our neighbors does not fly with us. So we will not fly with you.”
You can check out the full speech delivered at the press conference on Instagram, or read it below:
In the words of Frederick Douglass: “A lie is worth nothing when it has lost its ability to deceive.”
Trump’s words have no value because his entire strategy is built on deception, on shaking our foundation, creating chaos, and feeding us lies dressed up as law and order.
If his strategy is deception, then ours must be grounded in truth and the courage to stand in it. We don’t need permission to resist. We just have to remember that we can.
We are here today because Avelo needs to hear, loud and clear: Kidnapping our neighbors doesn’t fly with us — so we won’t fly with you. Because if morality won’t move them, maybe their bank statements will.
There is more chaos headed our way because behind all of this cruelty, this federal fearmongerering — is the same goal: to consolidate power and control through division, by making people feel small, scared, and alone.
You are not alone. You have free will. You do not have to carry out cruelty. And you do not have to support companies or policies that cause pain.
To our state legislators, you must come together to pass the New York for All Act, to ensure our schools, hospitals, and public services aren’t turned into tools of federal immigration enforcement.
We must make sure no public agency in New York is weaponized against us, and our cities and towns are protected, together.
Thank you.