Washington:
The military deportation flight of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to Guatemala, on Monday it is probably at at least $ 4,675 per migrant, according to the data provided by US and Guatemalan officials.
That is more than five times the cost of $ 853 of a unidirectional first class ticket in American Airlines of El Paso, Texas, the starting point of the flight, according to a review of the air rates available publicly.
It is also significantly higher than the cost of a commercial charter flight by the United States immigration and customs control (ICE).
Trump launched military deportation flights last week as part of his National Emergency Declaration on Immigration, so far sending six migrants on flights to Latin America.
Only four have landed, all in Guatemala, after Colombia refused to let two US C-17 load aircraft .
An American official, who spoke with Reuters on anonymity, estimated that the cost of operating a military transport plane C-17 is $ 28,500 per hour. The round trip to Guatemala, not including time in the floor or no operation to prepare the flight for takeoff, took about 10-1/2 hours in the air to complete, said the official.
A Guatemalan official told Reuters that the military transport plane landed on Monday with 64 people on board.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Trump, speaking at his golf club doral to Republican legislators on Monday, promised its unprecedented use of military aircraft for deportations and any country that is rejected “will pay a high economic price.”
“For the first time in history, we are locating and loading illegal foreigners in military planes and flying back to the places from which they came,” Trump said applaud.
“We respect each other again, after years of laughing from us as if we were stupid people.”
The White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, published images last week of migrants who upload the rear ramp of a huge C-17, announcing: “President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to everyone: if You enter the United States of America illegally.
High price
The C-17 price label is substantially higher than the alternative: commercial aircraft rented by ICE.
Costs for charter ice flights vary. According to the information published on the ICE website in 2021, the cost of “ice air” flights is $ 8,577 per hour of flight. But ICE’s interim director, Tae Johnson, told the legislators during a 2023 budget hearing that deportation flights cost $ 17,000 per hour of flight for 135 deportees and generally lasted five hours.
The highest figure given by Johnson would result in a cost of $ 630 per person, assuming that the autonomous company, and not ICE, pays the cost of the return flight. A former ICE official said the cost had increased slightly since 2023.
ICE says it transports detainees in Boeing 737 or McDonnell Douglas MD-80.
The Pentagon said last week that the United States Army would provide flights for deportations of more than 5,000 immigrants held by US authorities in El Paso, Texas and San Diego, California.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a union feed).
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