WASHINGTON - Four days after President Donald Trump returned to office, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made an announcement: “Deportation flights have begun. President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: If you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences."

Trump began using U.S. military planes to reinforce his deportation operation, although Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been deporting immigrants on private airlines since 2010.

But a month and a half after the White House announcement, the pace of deportation flights is a bit slower than those of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. Also, the number of immigrants expelled through flights has decreased and the government has stopped using military aircraft, which according to immigration experts was more expensive and inefficient.

In Latin American countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and Ecuador — which receive the most deportation flights — authorities say they have not seen major changes in operations compared to previous U.S. administrations. They even predict that, if the current trend of the Trump administration continues, 2025 would end with fewer flights and fewer deportees.

The decline in flights and deportees is partly due to a drop in border crossings since Trump took office, which has left immigration authorities with fewer people eligible for “expedited removal,” which is used to expel those caught at the border or in an area within 100 miles of the border, and within 14 days of arrival to the country.

Data shows that in February, 128 flights with deportees took off, including 19 military flights. That figure is lower than Immigration and Customs Enforcement's 137 deportation flights in February 2024.

The main destinations of February's deportation flights were Honduras and Guatemala, countries that for years have received weekly flights with deportees.

NBC News reported this week that of the people deported by the Trump administration in February, about half had no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the decrease in deportation flights from February 2024 to February 2025 and whether it plans to increase the number of flights.

The decrease in deportation flights took place as Trump pressured countries such as Panama, Honduras and Costa Rica to accept planes with deportees of other nationalities and the administration used military aircraft to carry out the deportations.

In early March, the Defense Department suspended the use of C-17 jets to transport undocumented people to the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay and other countries.

In total, the Trump administration conducted 29 military flights to seven countries, mostly Guatemala. But those flights ended up being more expensive and less efficient than the commercial flights usually contracted by ICE to expel migrants.

An hourlong flight of a Boeing C-17 jet, designed to carry cargo and soldiers, costs about $28,500, according to the military's Air Mobility Command. By contrast, the average one-hour flight cost of a regular charter plane hired by ICE is $8,577 and the cost of “special high-risk” charter flights is $6,929 to $26,795 per hour, according to ICE.

Military flights to Latin America have also been more expensive because aircraft have taken longer routes, avoiding Mexico’s airspace, which has not allowed military planes carrying deportees to land. Mexico continues to receive ICE charter flights; between January and Feb. 11, they transported almost 2,000 Mexicans from Texas and Arizona, according to data provided by the Mexican government.

The military flights carried out by the Trump administration since Jan. 24 carried an average of 68 passengers per trip, while regular ICE flights on private airline planes carried an average of 105 passengers, according to data analyzed by Noticias Telemundo.

The Trump administration has released images of immigrants boarding military planes in chains and the administration's border czar, Tom Homan, said in January that Army aircraft with deportees would take off every day.

Experts said they thought the use of military aircraft was publicity strategy to increase the visibility of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and persuade immigrants to desist from crossing into the U.S. illegally. (Source: NBC News)

Story Date: March 14, 2025