DHS Acquires Fleet of Jets to Facilitate Mass Deportations
The Department of Homeland Security has taken a major step toward rebuilding America’s immigration enforcement infrastructure, announcing a new agreement to acquire six Boeing 737 aircraft dedicated solely to deportation operations. According to the agency, the upgraded fleet will streamline ICE removal flights while saving taxpayers an estimated $279 million — a sharp contrast to the costly charter system long relied upon during previous administrations.
Sources who spoke with The Washington Post said the agreement is worth nearly $140 million and is being financed in part through funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill, the sweeping legislative package enacted earlier this year under President Donald J. Trump. DHS officials say the investment will finally give federal authorities the reliable, permanent aviation capacity needed to enforce immigration law at scale.
For decades, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement depended heavily on inconsistent, high-expense charter flights to carry out removals. The Trump administration’s DHS leadership argues that those days are over. As Just the News reported, the new dedicated fleet is designed to accelerate large-scale deportation operations as enforcement efforts intensify nationwide.
“These planes will allow ICE to operate more effectively, including by using more efficient flight patterns,” Assistant DHS Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin posted on X. “President Trump and [Homeland Security] Secretary [Kristi] Noem are committed to quickly and efficiently getting criminal illegal aliens OUT of our country.”
The announcement comes as the administration pushes toward its target of removing one million migrants by year’s end — a goal the president has repeatedly described as essential to restoring sovereignty, national security, and the rule of law. Border czar Tom Homan reports that roughly 579,000 deportations have already been completed, with another 66,000 migrants currently held in detention and awaiting processing, Just the News added.
The surge in enforcement follows the deadly attack on National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., carried out last month by an Afghan national who entered the United States during Joe Biden’s presidency. The incident has intensified scrutiny of the Biden-era Operation Allies Welcome program, which admitted tens of thousands of Afghans with minimal vetting.
Amid escalating national-security concerns, Secretary Noem has pledged to recommend a new round of travel restrictions on countries she says have contributed significantly to violent crime in the U.S. In a blunt social-media post, she announced that she had met with President Trump and would urge “a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”
The president and DHS both reshared Noem’s post, signaling clear support for expanding the administration’s travel-ban framework. DHS told the BBC that it would announce the affected countries in the near future, though specific details remain pending.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that President Trump had already implemented a travel ban months earlier targeting several “third world and failed state” countries. Noem’s recommendations would broaden the policy even further. On June 4, the White House released a list of 19 countries — mostly in Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean — designated for full or partial immigration restrictions.
Multiple officials told CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. partner, that Noem’s proposed additions would expand the list to roughly 30 nations.
Before outlining the expanded travel-ban proposal, Noem highlighted the security gaps created during the Biden years, noting that approximately 100,000 Afghan nationals entered the U.S. through Operation Allies Welcome. She added that DHS is currently reviewing and overhauling its vetting procedures in light of the D.C. attack.
Authorities have identified the shooter as an Afghan national who arrived in 2021 under the same Biden-era program, which was intended to resettle individuals who had assisted U.S. forces during the Afghanistan conflict.
Meanwhile, FBI Director Kash Patel condemned what he called the “emblematic failure” of the Biden administration’s vetting system during an interview on “The Ingraham Angle.”
“The problem with this case shows the emblematic failure of the Biden administration to vet anyone who came here from Afghanistan after the disastrous withdrawal,” Patel said.
The fallout from the attack remains severe. Air National Guard Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, continues to fight for his life in critical condition, while 20-year-old U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom of the West Virginia Army National Guard succumbed to her injuries.