Private airlines, AI, and 'Prime-style' speed: ICE's mass deportation plan

​Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons proposes modeling deportations after Amazon's delivery system, organizing squads of trucks for efficient removals

​Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons has proposed modeling deportation processes after Amazon's delivery system, aiming to streamline removals by organizing squads of trucks to efficiently transport individuals. He envisions a system akin to Amazon Prime, but for human beings, to expedite deportations.

 

This proposal was discussed during the 2025 Border Security Expo in Phoenix, where Lyons emphasized the need for operational improvements within ICE. He suggested that adopting business-like strategies could enhance the efficiency of deportation procedures. 

 

“We need to get better at treating this like a business,” Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said, explaining he wants to see a deportation process “like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings.”

 

Additionally, former ICE Director Tom Homan has advocated for conducting mass deportations without separating families, proposing that families should be deported together to avoid family separations. ​

 

These developments are part of broader efforts by the Trump administration to intensify immigration enforcement, including the potential use of the Alien Enemies Act to expedite deportations. 

 

Lyons also discussed the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to expedite deportations, stating that AI could "free up bed space" and "fill up airplanes," thereby speeding up the process.

 

He also stated that he has been working with Elon Musk's "department of government efficiency" (DOGE) to obtain social security numbers in order to investigate "voter fraud."

 

The Trump administration’s mass deportation strategy is increasingly involving private sector collaboration, using private companies to carry out immigration enforcement operations—particularly deportations.

 

Here's what’s happening:

Avelo Airlines, a U.S.-based budget carrier, has entered into a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to operate deportation flights, starting May 2025.

 

These flights will include both domestic and international routes, facilitated by three Boeing 737-800 planes based out of Mesa Gateway Airport in Arizona.

 

Avelo’s CEO, Andrew Levy, described this agreement as part of a "long-term charter programme"—essentially, a standing partnership to assist ICE in regularly transporting undocumented individuals out of the country.

 

Why it matters:

This move indicates a scaling up of ICE’s capacity to remove people quickly and in larger numbers, using private infrastructure and airlines rather than relying solely on government resources. It's part of a broader plan under the Trump administration to conduct mass deportations, often likened to a logistical operation similar to commercial shipping or delivery systems. 

About 11 million undocumented immigrants lived in the United States as of 2022—3.3 percent of the country’s overall population. An additional 2.3 million removable immigrants were released into the United States between January 2023 and April 2024 and would also be targeted in any mass deportation operation, as per the American Immigration Council.

 

A one-time operation to deport these immigrants would cost at least $315 billion said the Council, broken down as follows:

• The government would have to spend $89.3 billion to conduct sufficient arrests.
• The government would have to spend $167.8 billion to detain immigrants en masse.
• The government would have to spend $34.1 billion on legal processing.
• The government would have to spend $24.1 billion on removals