(The Epoch Times)—The United States has agreed to purchase a fleet of Boeing 737 commercial passenger aircraft to conduct removal operations of illegal immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Dec. 10.
DHS will buy six such aircraft from Daedalus Aviation Corporation, a third-party vendor, for about $140 million. DHS said it will cost less to purchase and use these aircraft for removal operations than to continue using charter aircraft as it does at present.
“[T]his new initiative will save the US taxpayer $279 MILLION … These planes will allow [the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to operate more effectively, including by using more efficient flight patterns,” Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, wrote on social media. “President [Donald] Trump and [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem] are committed to quickly and efficiently getting criminal illegal aliens OUT of our country.”
The news of the purchase was first reported by The Washington Post, which McLaughlin criticized for not including in its article a reference to the department’s estimated savings. The purchase is being funded by money allocated in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that Trump signed into law on July 4.
The initiative to remove unlawfully present foreign nationals from the United States has been one of the highest priorities of the second Trump administration, which began on Jan. 20. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly promised at rallies and in campaign messaging that he would launch the “largest deportation operation in American history.”
The administration has utilized multiple resources to implement this effort, including assigning federal law enforcement agents and officers from other agencies such as the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, Diplomatic Security Service, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigators, to conduct removal operations under Title 8 of the U.S. Code. It has also used U.S. military resources, including Air Force transportation aircraft, to remove deportees to foreign countries.
The OBBBA allocated $75 billion to ICE to conduct removal operations through Sept. 30, 2029. Nearly $30 billion of that money may be used to expand transportation, hire more Enforcement and Removal Operations officers, and pay state and local police units for their assistance in apprehending and detaining suspected illegal immigrants.
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