US buys own Boeing 737 jets to expand deportation flights amid Trump's push

By Myles Miller and Siddharth Philip

 

The US government will buy six Boeing Co. 737 jets to carry out deportation flights, expanding the administration’s efforts to ramp up the removals of people living in the country without legal status. 

The aircraft will be acquired from Daedalus Aviation under a contract valued at about $140 million, according to a report first published by the Washington Post, which cited two people familiar with the agreement. 

 

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed the deal by email and on social media. Contract documents had not yet appeared on federal procurement websites. 

 

“This new initiative will save $279 million in taxpayer dollars by allowing ICE to operate more effectively, including by using more efficient flight patterns,” said McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS, in an emailed response to questions. “President Trump and Secretary Noem are committed to quickly and efficiently getting criminal illegal aliens OUT of our country.”

 

ICE Air Operations, the agency’s primary transport division, currently relies on a mix of chartered aircraft and commercial flights. It stages 12 aircraft from hubs in Arizona, Texas, Louisiana and Florida to transfer detainees between US detention facilities and to conduct removals overseas, according to its website. The new planes would allow ICE to operate more flights directly rather than contracting them out, a shift DHS said will result in cost savings.

 

ICE Air has long been one of the agency’s more opaque operations, with limited data on routes, costs and the conditions under which migrants are transported. 

 

Boeing 737s are widely used for domestic and short-to-medium-haul international routes, typically flying as many as 200 people, depending on the model and configuration. Depending on the model, the 737 is suitable for non-stop flights to Central America, the Caribbean and parts of South America, as well as hubs all over the US.

 

Daedalus Aviation on its website said it offers “a full range of commercial and charter aviation services.” No one immediately responded to an emailed request for comment.

 

The US government has ramped up immigration raids across the country this year, aiming for a goal of 1 million deportations — a target it’s falling short of. There have been more than 1,700 deportation flights to 77 nations since Trump was inaugurated in January, according to Human Rights Watch. The majority of flights have ferried migrants out of the US to Latin America and the Caribbean.

 

At the same time, ICE Air also carried out more than 6,300 domestic flights to move migrants between various US jails between January and the end of October. That is more than twice the number of internal transfers carried out in a comparable period during the Biden administration, according to Human Rights Watch.

 

The aircraft purchase comes as part of a broader enforcement push funded through the administration’s budget increase of more than $150 billion over the next decade for detention expansion, transportation, personnel and border operations.