The Trump administration is rounding up and expelling undocumented migrants and using Department of Defense aircraft to fly them out of the United States…at a staggering cost.
Trump Deportation Flights Come At A High Price
From the very start: this is not a pro-Trump or anti-Trump post. I’m not interested here in discussing the merits of the policy to round up illegal aliens with criminal records and deport them. Here, the issue is exclusively the manner and cost of the reparation flights out of the USA.
Declaring his immigration crackdown a national emergency, an official told CNN the military has not begun to calculate the costs of the flight due to the emergency declaration the White House issued on Monday. Instead, officials are moving “as quickly as possible with little regard to cost.”
This comes at a great cost.
A 2023 DOD comptroller report lists the average hourly cost of operating a C-17 as $21,000 and the average hourly cost of operating a C-130E between $68,000 and $71,000.
Using that math, the C-17 flights that flew from El Paso, Texas to Guatemala City, Guatemala on Thursday cost $252,000. There were 80 migrants onboard, meaning $3,150 per criminal alien.
A 12-hour round-trip flight on a C-130E could cost as much as $852,000!
Why military aircraft? Why not run them through a far less costly Department of Homeland Security charter? Why not hire Spirit Airlines to do it? That’d be one way to keep the bankrupt ultra-low-cost carrier busy…you can bet it would earn more than it does through its scheduled operations.
I find it staggering how the federal government and the Department of Defense in particular burns through cash. Surely there must be a cheaper way to get these people out of the United States?
image: The White House
When politicians spend money, it’s not their money. It is yours. That is why increased taxes is usually a waste.
The money is not even ours! The money goes where the politicians want it to, especially the billions of dollars sent for overseas wars.
You don’t bankrupt a casino by making sound financial decisions
Occasionally, the local commander will try to make the best of it by usin̈g those flights for already budgeted flight hours for training. Unknown if this is the case with the flights in the article.
Not as expensive as a lifetime of free education and healthcare.
What’s free? You don’t think these people pay taxes? I hate be the one to tell you they actually pay the same taxes as everyone else, yet do not get the benefits they pay for.
You people are so misinformed it’s pathetic and embarrassing. And what’s even more pathetic is you choose to be misinformed. Grow up.
Sales tax, yes but income tax, often the answer is no. They work for cash and get exploited by business owners. And yes, the employers paying them cash are criminals as well and need to be prosecuted.
If what you’re saying is true (and it’s largely not accurate), then if you really wanted to address the most impactful aspects of illegal immigration, you’d focus your enforcement efforts on the employers. But that’s both “anti-business” and makes for poor photo ops, without delivering that feel good dose of racism that a good old fashioned immigration raid delivers.
I have been preparing individual tax returns for 23 years, including several years working in an IRS VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) clinic. This canard, pushed primarily by Democrats, that illegal aliens “pay the same taxes as everyone else and yet do not get the benefits they pay for” is at best misleading, and at worst, completely false.
Assuming they’re actually receiving a W-2 instead of getting paid cash under the table, let’s assume an illegal couple with 2 kids born in the US earns $50,000 between them. If they claim the standard deduction, their income tax is $2,083. But guess what? They get to claim refundable child tax credits of $2,000 a pop for their kids, which means the American taxpayers are providing them a welfare benefit of $1,917. And guess who most of the clients are that come in to VITA clinics? Yes, illegal aliens coming in to claim their refunds thanks to the refundable child tax credit.
Yes, they pay sales tax; the IRS says a family of 4 in Dallas spends $1,459 a year on sales tax. Still a net benefit to them of $458. Also yes, they then pay $3,825 in payroll taxes for which they will never receive a benefit. (If you want to know why the scummy politicians in both parties don’t actually want to fix the illegal immigration problem, that’s why – so they can steal payroll taxes from those who can’t receive benefits to claim Social Security and Medicare aren’t as insolvent as they really are.) I’ll even be charitable and say they pay $2,500 a year in property taxes, either directly or indirectly. You really want to tell me that the $5,867 this family of four pays in taxes each year covers the cost of their kids’ free education in Dallas public schools, welfare benefits through SNAP, CHIP, and Medicaid, not to mention the charity care Parkland gets to write-off to the taxpayers when they come to the ER and can’t pay the bill?
Deny it all you want, but facts are facts – you and I both are subsidizing the average illegal alien family living here.
Am I missing something here? You have to have a social security number to get a W-2, so yes these people are here legally, or they are using someone else’s SSN in which the taxes are collected and never go to the person working under the borrowed SSN. Furthermore, that example you use child tax credits, etc applies to EVERY legal American taxpayer who is low income working in jobs that America needs. So yes, the tax code subsidizes lower income earners, big surprise. And your point is?
I would say it would help if you read what he wrote, but clearly reading comprehension isn’t something you possess. So cry harder.
They walked here from Mexico border, bus them to border and point SOUTH…
DONE.
Seems like you made a bigly mistake electing Criminal Trump. I think it’s time we brought you back under direct rule from London since you’ve failed so miserably at self government and not for the first time. We’ll rename your land South Canada.
please…We self rule just fine without your useless comments here in the blog. Go eat some fish chips, you are hangry
ROTFL, any country electing a convicted criminal to high office is not fit to govern itself.
The US should try the China strategy and claim to be the real UK, as well as claim the UK. A One UK policy! If you want to do business n with us, you must close your London embassy and open an embassy in Washington.
You must have a short memory. Biden sent billions of dollars overseas just before his term ended.
Na we are very happy. This is money we’ll spent.
Most of them will probably find their way back to the US, so this is a pointless exercise just for the benefit of TV cameras to record the event for political purposes. The US does not have the infrastructure to handle a serious mass deportation and the economy would collapse without these low wage workers doing the kinds of jobs that they do.
How nice of you to say you are for slavery. Why not just say you want to repeal the 14th, it would be just as effective.
“who’s going to pick the cotton?” moment
This cost seems to be nothing when compared to this:
https://nypost.com/2025/01/23/us-news/senate-doge-caucus-takes-aim-at-1-8b-government-fund-for-candy-comic-books-purely-propaganda/
https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/government-waste-inefficiency-trump-doge/
Good. Cut funding for that too. And also no tax cuts for the rich. Raise taxes and reduce the deficit and national debt.
We pay too much in taxes. Cut taxes and cut funding. The government has proven too incompetent to be trusted with tax money.
Well, let us hope that the Feds do not use the California model – raise taxes, then spend it on useless projects like the High Speed Rail jobs program to nowhere, and the “Center of Resistance” fund. But alas, here in the Golden State, it will always be “Tax the Rich” which means anyone who makes money.
I’d embrace a higher tax rate if that money was reducing the deficit at least dollar-for-dollar. Experience shows me that congress, with presidential approval, will spend a least one dollar for every new dollar raised. Dems, Republicans, makes no difference.
I strongly disagree with Trump on his immigration policies but that’s not the point of this post as you noted. It seems to me if this is going to be our policy, offering people cash payments for self-deportation is more cost effective. Probably bundling in a normal airline flight ticket and a cash payment payable at the destination airport.
It’s unlikely these people would have the requisite identification or passports to use commercial air travel, unless you are proposing the changing of aviation rules. Then, when given cash, what prevents them from using that to come right back? Not that I really gas about immigration, but I find the meltdown purely hilarious by the usual suspects.
Even with normal deportation the US government has to obtain a passport from the country of citizenship, before transporting them on the DOJ or DOD aircraft. This bounty would encourage them to obtain a passport themselves. Correct nothing will stop them from attempting to illegally enter the US again but that’s the same with normal deportation. I’m not proposing this as a good immigration policy is just in my opinion probably the best way to implement a bad one.
While we’re at it, maybe we can pay people to not commit crimes too!
1) Imagining that a turboshaft C130 cost 3x as much as a long range turbofan C17, both with 4 engines, is fancy at best, and at worst reveals a complete lack of basic engineering judgement
2) These crew would be oing crew training flights otherwise, it is not as if suddenly the number of flight hours were expending drastically so this is weird computations
3) Would you rather have the C17 collect dust in the desert? If you don’t use it, why did you purchase it in the first place?
In addition to all this, I find it funny they are all whining about a what might equate 360 mill a year to deport *criminal* illegals, but not the housing costs if they were locked up here? Nor the 5t plus budgets the last upteenth years. So the false outrage, particularly by the self proclaimed “liberals” here is amusing, at minimum.
@Minos: These are not my numbers – they come from the DOD source I linked to above.
You need to exercise good judgement if the numbers are obviously wrong.
No point in quoting something insane.
You may have quoted a government report on flying hour costs, but the C-130E model has been retired for a long time. The high cost er hour was most likely associated with it being an old aircraft with high maintenance costs, The newer C-139 models have lower costs per flight hour.
How about the staggering cost of allowing illegals to stay?
You mean picking tomatoes & cleaning hotel rooms?
Since when is Hilton cleaning rooms?
Funny how all the actual racists come out of the woodwork to defend slavery.
or the victims of their criminal actions.
Round them up and execute the violent criminals. No need to send them home.
Well, I am 100% on board with that but unfortunately it won’t happen. There are some really bad people among nice ones in the illegal immigrants population.
“Round them up and execute the violent criminals” could we do that with American Criminals too? For example all these School shooters? “……..According to Statista, 81% of mass public shooters at K-12 schools in the U.S. from 1966 to January 2024 identified as white” Please execute them first…………………..
Yes please! They should be executed too.
Great job, Repugnicants. Let’s downsize the governement bloat by creating new agencies like DOGE and ERS and light money on fire by staging televised useless propaganda flights. Did I also mention firing watchdogs in the middle of the night? You’ve all been conned, Conservative idiots. You just elected a criminal would be King. USA RIP.
Cry harder, goofball.
Found the fat, non-binary purple-haired barista.
PS, how bout them egg prices, suckers?
Wahhhhhh, wahhhhhh
unreal article, what do you think these people cost the taxpayer now? You give voice to the hate trump crowd with stupid click bait crap like the story. Why waste your space on this ridicules stuff?
Why must you politicize this? Why do so-called limited government conservatives turn a blind eye to extreme government waste?
Deporting violent criminals who rape our daughters, destroy the job market for citizens, and turn communities to filth is waste?
Sure, but what’s more expensive, to give these people a monthly welfare check to live, to house and feed and educate these people and their families, and perhaps jail some of them because of crimes they commit here in the USA? The flights are nothing. And look at the billions of dollars sent to Ukraine and Israel for war.
What does Ukraine and Isreal have to do with this? The federal taxpayers used to subsidize defense conractors spread out through hundreds of Congressional districts provides a preverse incentive to perpetutate war. Two wrongs don’t make it right. Today, I’m talking about these flights and I find the costs unjustifiable.
Trump/Rubio’s orders disrupting foreign aid have already disrupted aid to foreign military and intelligence services. Egypt and Israel got a pass, our aid to Ukraine did not as much. The ridiculous thing is the work got halted but the obligation to pay people continues even when ordered to stop working.
Aid often comes with strings, strings that benefit the US. When the strings weaken due to less aid delivered, cooperation from the other countries is at risk of dropping; and even if they keep cooperating, it could end up costing us one way or the other.
You are being hypocritical. That’s the problem. You don’t talk about the hundreds of billions taxpayers are forced to send to Israel or Ukraine to fund genocide and violence but you talk about deportation flights that actually save taxpayers hundreds of billions and even trillions over the long run if enough are deported and reduces criminals here who would rape our citizens?
Why not just be honest that you oppose strong border and immigration enforcement instead of pretending your issue with this is cost.
Most are not getting welfare checks. They are doing the jobs that white Americans do not want to do. Growing your food, much of the current construction and processing plants
This is some of the poorest economic decisions we can make.
“They’re only selling the fentanyl that Americans don’t want to sell!”
You must have shit for brains if you think illegal immigrants are getting welfare checks. You moron
@Matthew: Just checking why my comment was not posted here
Your comments have never been blocked. When you post anything with more than one link it is flagged as spam.
Thanks
I assume Military pilots fly planes to get trained and accumulate hours. Eventually, they leave the military with a certain number of hours to apply for jobs with the airlines; more than one purpose for these flights.
You’re saying subsidizing the future hiring of commercial carriers validates the high cost of these flights?
We can have a discussion about the military industrial complex, but this money would either be spent on bs training exercises or this. It’s not a net waste. But if we are going to have a military, then obviously training will be involved to some extent, so this comment is kinda tone deaf.
“Since the military pilots may need the training hours, why can’t they just be my personal flight operator to fly my wherever I want to go whenever I want to go. It’s just more training hours they need to do anyway.”
That’s the absurdity of the “training hours” excuse to justify the flight costs.
And the flights require a lot of non-pilot personnel support for the pilots to be able to fly. That’s time and money too.
Those non flying personnel are already paid for being on active duty in the military. Instead of sitting in the office or recreation room they are working. They would be paid regardless. Stop being disingenuous.
These flights are regularly run because military pilots routinely train a certain hours a month regardless if there is any mission or not. It’s disingenuous to say these costs wouldn’t happen regardless of these deportation flights.
Any price to get rid of illegals is worth it. Why not cut the funding to the criminal enterprise in Israel, to the money laundering in Ukraine, or the money spent on gender studies in Pakistan.
I think you are ignoring the amount saved from paying benefits to illegals and their future children.
Admit you are nitpicking because you seem ok with the government spending $400 billion a year in benefits for illegals and their kids (you never complain about it) and the violence and ugliness they bring but complain about costs of flights to deport violent criminals and trespassers.
Yeah so they accumulate hours faster, so can jump to commercial airlines faster, alleviating the pilot shortage and ensuring lower airline costs and ticket prices. Good
The military drone pilots are going to fly you sooner than later?
The other sad part are the billions often spent on weapons that the military services don’t even want but members of congress keep them alive to gain favor in the towns where the unwanted weapons/aircraft/ships are being built. Essentially job welfare.
Helps keep stock prices of Lockheed, Northrup, and other defense companies rising upward.
I spent ~20 yrs working for an agency in the DoD and while there was some amazing work done, there was also a ton of wasted money and too many poor employees, but the same could be said for some of the contractors milking the government out of ton of money.
The Trump generation of government contractors are set to be a new, more extreme level of corruption. And with OIGs and whistleblowing knee-capped by the Trump Admin, it’s going to be a field day for corrupt actors of the like never before seen in the US in our lifetime.
Oh the irony. I love when people like you start whining about “corruption” when your side loses. When it’s clear that corruption is bau in DC, but morons like you can only see it in the “other side”. This is why the corruption will never end.
It will never be more expensive than the cost of supporting the criminals.
Bingo ,
Matthew you seem to be missing the point. Watch what they do, not what they say. This is all part of Trump and his criminal enterprise’s next grift.
Did you really believe Trump thought he could use the US military to remove illegal immigrants from the United States? Once the legal challenges kick in, and the courts stop this illegal use of the US military Trump and his fellow grifters will be hiring private firms to do the ICE raids.
Trump’s already fired all the people that provided oversight. So these firms will have free reign to do as they please while legal challenges pile up in court. Also, pardoning over 1,500 criminals frees up a lot of warm bodies who cannot wait to carry out retribution on anyone in their way.
Remember the SA from the 3rd Reich? We are watching history repeat itself in English instead of German this time.
Lulz, you people are dumber than a box of rocks. You should actually read history if you are going to quote it. Hint, the national socialists werent firing career bureaucrats and talking about making government smaller. The Nazi platform wanted free healthcare, transportation, etc. its truly mindboggling how easily you idiots lap up propaganda.
So all those people murdered by the Nazis opposed free healthcare? Surely you jest.
You are mixing up your history, current right wingers are nearly perfectly aligned with their historical brethren in Germany. Including the looting of the country’s treasury.
Follow the money, especially around $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins.
I’m not a “right winger” dingbat. I didn’t mixup anything. I read the Nazi platform, which ignorant people like you are too lazy, or stupid, to do. The were the national socialists, what the modern “liberals”, call themselves. They support the same policies. They support strong central government. Under a real liberal government the governmental corporation would be able to be drown in bathtub and federalism would return. But I don’t expect children like you to understand what actual small government is.
Making government smaller by creating new government departments. Wow you are dumb
Firing federal employees is a defacto shrinking of government. Not enough, and I have zero hope for this admin. I’m not a trump supporter. But tribal dopes like you aren’t smart enough to see that.
Looking at the interior view of the plane, the deportees had more leg space than commercial airlines give you. You could pack 1000 people on those transport planes.
The Tittle should read, the cost of Bidon’s open border policies.
Why not just enforce and strengthen e-verify. Make applicable to anyone working, even if they aren’t classified as an employee. Increase penalties to employers who don’t comply. If they can’t get jobs, they will leave on their own and will stop coming.
It’s worth every penny.
Typical comments from an white good old boy
I like seeing my tax dollars do something productive. If it saves one life, it is worth it.
It comes down to this…..they need to go and the easiest way to do this is to do it with something the government directly controls. Trump is acting right away vs. negotiating forvever with a private business or having to deal with red tape. That’s the point. It’s a National Emergency. It’s not a let’s sit down and think about this for weeks or months. I can see where the cost is an issue from a pure dollar amount but vs. keeping them here and providing benefits it is actually cheaper. Now that it is underway and the deportations are actually happening like the majority of Americans want, he can work with private companies such as Spirit, while still keeping them going. You don’t hear people complaining about the cost because Trump is actually doing something the people want and way quicker than government normally moves. We can send 100’s of billions of dollars to a war in Ukraine and no one bats an eye, but god forbid we spend the money here in the US protecting our citizens and upholding our laws.
Illegals cost $400 billion a year in federal, state, and local benefits plus the cost of violence, low standards, and disruption of peace and tranquility they bring. We rather the money be spent here deporting these criminals instead of being laundered in Ukraine or in the pockets of Democrat or rino politicians. If you don’t complain about the 100 billion sent to prop up the Israeli regime every year, don’t complain about what actually helps decent people.
The military regularly flies transport aircraft to train pilots and keep them current in hours. Likely, most of these flights would have been run away so it’s disingenuous to complain about them.
@Matthew
I just thought about it. You can’t be this dumb. You must be doing this because you know this topic will generate engagement with your article and blog and drive traffic. It is the low road to take because some things aren’t worth the money. But you don’t actually believe that using military planes that would be used for training flights is an issue but spending $400 billion on benefits for illegals or sending $200 billion to Ukraine or sending $50-$100 billion to Israel for their genocide programs are.
I love to watch this joke grandstand and send a few illegals to Guatemala in a huge costly plane. How many trumpers know how many illegals were sent back to that one country just last year??? 25,ooo people were. a total of almost 300K illegals were sent home last year alone. So this ego maniac who can’t ask the time without boasting a lie to make him the Big Man gets called out and all his crazies start screaming. If you were not ashamed of your vote listening to his speeches last Monday then you are beyond help. How can you care about criminals leaking into out country and cheer the lowlives who attacked the capital??
Hey, Matthew, call up Google and type the name Mollie Tibbetts. Ever heard the name? Didn’t think so. Just some Iowa girl raped, butchered and stashed in a cornfield by an “undocumented immigrant.” Burying her cost less than an hour of C-17 flight time.
Your posting today makes me sick. I have enjoyed this travel blog the last few years, especially the reviews, observations and reports from planes, lounges and hotels. Thank you for that. But I’ll be leaving now, looking for political crap on MSNBC, Fox, CNN, The Times, Post and WSJ.
Best of luck. I’m gone.
Maybe you’re not hearing what I am saying. Why are we wasting money putting them on planes? Execute them. An illegal who rapes or murders? Shoot them. It’s really that simple. Cristhian Bahena Rivera should be castrated without anesthesia then gassed.
How many kids were killed in schools by Republicans in the last 10 years? We should probably get rid of all you too just to be safe
Oh look, billy bub is here keyboard vomiting again. Your tears will be delicious the next four years.
Just saying… if one girl in Iowa getting killed means all illegal immigrants are potential killers and need to be deported… shouldn’t all potential school shooters be deported? History says that is republicans.
I would say actually look at the statistics, but I know you aren’t smart enough to find them. Keep weeping. It’s beautiful.
This is beyond idiotic. You use a 2023 instead of 2024 and a model of the C-130 that’s been retired for over a decade.
The point of these flights isn’t anything tangible in regards to real immigration policy, public safety, or fiscal discipline. They’re photo ops to make Trump look like a man of action. Putting them on a civilian airliner doesn’t deliver that perp walk tv moment nor does it satisfy some base desire to see people dehumanized.
You nailed it. It’s grandstanding because the narcissistic, psychopathic, whining adult-child brat wants attention and an audience — his own fans — to gaslight while he milks all he can.
Nice projection, batman.
@ Matthew — What else do you expect from an idiot like DJT?
Is it fair to critique Trump’s costly grandstanding when their are far more cost effective ways of accomplishing the same goals.. off course. The tribalism and lack of critical thinking skills is quickly leading to our downfall.
Honestly, we fell the day that Wilson was elected. Then FDR put the nail in the coffin.
lol at anyone who thinks $852,000 is alot of money when the US national debt is north of $50 trillion.
These people that were hear illegally shouldn’t have broke the law whether done so in the U.S. , back in their home country , or both. They are being returned to their country of origin for crimes committed.
The most amusing part of the meltdown is this doesn’t cost the same as we waste on the state propaganda arm, NPR, even at the current burn rate. But I don’t hear Beelzebub or GUwhitebread whining about that 575 million.
Optics, I assume, in the first instance.
It’s amazing that US citizens have a problem with deporting illegal rapists, child abusers, gang members, murderers, etc…
Let alone radical leftist governments that harbor them in sanctuary cities.
You all are brainwashed. GFY.
Worth every penny