U.S. President Donald Trump’s navy deportation flight to Guatemala on Monday doubtless value no less than $4,675 per migrant, in response to information offered by U.S. and Guatemalan officers.
That’s greater than 5 instances the $853 value of a one-way firstclass ticket on American Airways from El Paso, Texas, the departure level for the flight, in response to a evaluation of publicly accessible airfares.
It’s also considerably greater than the price of a business constitution flight by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Trump launched the navy deportation flights final week as a part of his nationwide emergency declaration on immigration, thus far sending six planeloads of migrants on flights to Latin America.
Solely 4 have landed, all of them in Guatemala, after Colombia refused to let two U.S. C-17 cargo plane land and as a substitute despatched its personal planes to gather migrants following a standoff with Trump.
A U.S. official, talking to Reuters on situation of anonymity, estimated the associated fee to function a C-17 navy transport plane is $28,500 per hour. The flight backwards and forwards to Guatemala, not together with time on the bottom or any operations to arrange the flight for takeoff, took about 10-1/2 hours within the air to finish, the official mentioned.
A Guatemalan official informed Reuters the navy transport airplane landed on Monday with 64 individuals on board.
The Pentagon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Trump, talking at his Doral golf membership to Republican lawmakers on Monday, vowed his unprecedented use of navy plane for deportations would proceed and any international locations that refuse will “pay a excessive financial value.”
“For the primary time in historical past, we’re finding and loading unlawful aliens into navy plane and flying them again to the locations from which they got here,” Trump mentioned to applause.
“We’re revered once more, after years of laughing at us like we’re silly individuals.”
White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted photos final week of migrants boarding up the again ramp of a hulking C-17, saying, “President Trump is sending a powerful and clear message to all the world: when you illegally enter the US of America, you’ll face extreme penalties.”
The C-17 price ticket is considerably greater than the choice: business plane chartered by ICE.
Prices for the constitution ICE flights fluctuate. In accordance with info posted on ICE’s web site in 2021, the associated fee for “Ice Air” flights is $8,577 per flight hour. However appearing ICE Director Tae Johnson informed lawmakers throughout an April 2023 finances listening to that deportation flights value $17,000 per flight hour for 135 deportees and usually lasted 5 hours.
The upper determine given by Johnson would translate to a price of $630 per particular person, assuming the constitution firm, and never ICE, pays the price of the return flight. A former ICE official mentioned the associated fee had risen barely since 2023.
ICE says it transports detainees on chartered Boeing 737 or McDonnell Douglas MD-80 sequence plane.
The Pentagon mentioned final week the U.S. navy would supply flights for the deportations of greater than 5,000 immigrants held by U.S. authorities in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.
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