The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on March 5th, citing a U.S. Department of Defence official, that the Donald Trump administration, which has been pursuing a strong illegal immigrant deportation policy since taking office, has ceased using military transport planes for deportations. According to the report, the Department of Defence has not conducted any forced deportations of illegal immigrants using military aircraft since March 1st. Additionally, a flight scheduled for March 6th was also cancelled, as confirmed by a Department of Defence official.<\/p>\n
Since President Trump’s inauguration on January 20, he has been implementing a large-scale policy aimed at deporting illegal immigrants. Federal authorities have utilized the Guantanamo Bay naval base detention facility in Cuba as a transit point for deportations. Around 200 Venezuelan immigrants were transferred to Guantanamo Bay and were recently sent back to their home countries. In the past, U.S. authorities have relied on military transport aircraft to deport immigrants either to Guantanamo Bay or directly to their home countries.<\/p>\n
WSJ reported that Defence Department officials explained that the Trump administration opted to use military aircraft to reinforce its hard-line stance against illegal immigration. According to the WSJ\u2019s analysis of flight tracking data, U.S. authorities conducted approximately 30 flights using C-17 transport aircraft and about 12 flights using C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. In addition to Guantanamo Bay, other destinations included countries such as India, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Honduras, and Panama.<\/p>\n
However, the WSJ pointed out that using military aircraft for deportations is far less efficient and more expensive than utilizing civilian aircraft. For instance, the cost of a forced repatriation flight to India amounted to $3 million per flight, and transporting 12 immigrants to Guantanamo Bay cost at least $20,000 per person. Reuters had previously reported that the operating cost of a C-17 transport aircraft is estimated at $28,500 (around 41.4 million won) per hour, which makes the cost of deporting one immigrant using a military aircraft more expensive than a first-class commercial flight ticket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"