Avelo Airlines, a carrier that serves small cities mostly on the coasts, quashed a boycott campaign over its polarizing decision to operate federal deportation flights. Now, the creator of the campaign is suing to keep it going.
Seth Miller, an independent aviation journalist and state lawmaker in New Hampshire, began the campaign last week with advertisements on two billboards near Avelo’s busiest airport urging travelers to avoid the airline. The ads, near Tweed New Haven Airport in Connecticut, featured a modified Avelo logo and the message: “Does your vacation support their deportation? Just say AvelNO!”
Days later, a lawyer for the airline sent Mr. Miller a letter saying he had violated Avelo’s trademark. Mr. Miller said the airline had also persuaded the billboard operator, Lamar Advertising, to take down the ads. In response, he sued the airline Friday afternoon in Nevada, where the airline is incorporated, asking a court to affirm that he was only exercising his freedom of speech.
“I have the right to raise objections to their business actions, just as much as they have the right to advertise their business,” Mr. Miller said in an interview.
Avelo declined to comment. Lamar did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Avelo, which is based in Houston, began the deportation flights on Monday, despite a fierce backlash in recent weeks from consumers and lawmakers across the country.
The airline’s decision was unusual. Immigration and Customs Enforcement relies heavily on private carriers, but most are little-known charter airlines. Commercial airlines, like Avelo, typically avoid this kind of work so as not to get involved in politics. Avelo said it had carried out deportation flights under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. The airline is also under financial pressure, and its chief executive, Andrew Levy, has described the opportunity as too good to pass up.
Mr. Miller said he was disturbed to learn of the decision last month because he believed that the deportations were being carried with insufficient due process and that the flights were unsafe because of how the passengers were reportedly bound by shackles.
“This contract was signed after we knew that they were sending people to the wrong countries, that they were doing it without hearings,” he said. “I think that’s disgusting and needs to be called out.”
Mr. Miller, a Democrat who lives in Dover, N.H., said he had debated getting involved because he also reported on the business of aviation. After several conversations with his wife, he decided he had no choice. Mr. Miller posted on social media about the idea of starting a boycott campaign, created the advertisement and raised about $6,000 to pay for the billboards, he said.
The ads were displayed starting on Monday, May 5. Four days later, Mr. Miller said, he received the letter from the Avelo lawyer accusing him of trademark infringement and unfair competition. The airline said it had heard of “instances of actual confusion” among customers who mistakenly believed that Mr. Miller’s billboard was affiliated with the airline.
The lawyer said Avelo could recoup damages of $150,000 per infringement and asked that the billboards and an associated website be removed by 5 p.m. on Friday to “avoid any escalation of this matter.”
Mr. Miller said he had no intention of taking down the ads and instead hired a lawyer to fight back. But a representative for the billboard operator, Lamar, told Mr. Miller this week that it had received a similar letter from Avelo and had taken down the ads to avoid getting involved in a legal fight.
The argument behind the lawsuit Mr. Miller filed Friday is a simple one, said Charlie Gerstein, the lawyer representing him. The billboard makes clear that the ad was paid for by an organization that Mr. Miller founded for this purpose, Mr. Gerstein said.
“The First Amendment protects Miller’s speech here, and the principle underlying that is that Avelo can make its own speech,” he said. “Avelo is free to respond to Miller in the marketplace of ideas but is not free to use baseless threats of litigation to silence him.”
Mr. Miller was not alone in criticizing the airline’s decision. Groups around the country, including the New Haven Immigrants Coalition, a collection of groups that support immigrants’ rights, protested and started campaigns to pressure Avelo to drop its work with the government on deportation flights. Gen-Z for Change, a youth-led progressive group, introduced a tool last week that would allow people to overwhelm Avelo with useless applications in response to its job postings for the deportation flights.
The Democratic governors of Connecticut and Delaware denounced Avelo, while lawmakers in Connecticut and New York released proposals to withdraw state support, including a tax break on jet fuel purchases, from companies that work with ICE.
In a statement, the immigration agency described the backlash against Avelo as “nothing more than a tired tactic to abolish ICE by proxy.”
Niraj Chokshi writes about aviation, rail and other transportation industries.
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