WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s military deportation flight to Guatemala on Monday (Jan 27) likely cost at least US$4,675 per migrant, according to data provided by US and Guatemalan officials.
That is more than five times the US$853 cost of a one-way first class ticket on American Airlines from El Paso, Texas, the departure point for the flight, according to a review of publicly available airfares.
It is also significantly higher than the cost of a commercial charter flight by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Trump launched the military deportation flights last week as part of his national emergency declaration on immigration, so far sending six planeloads of migrants on flights to Latin America.
Only four have landed, all of them in Guatemala, after Colombia refused to let two US C-17 cargo aircraft land and instead sent its own planes to collect migrants following a standoff with Trump.
A US official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, estimated the cost to operate a C-17 military transport aircraft is US$28,500 per hour. The flight back and forth to Guatemala, not including time on the ground or any operations to prepare the flight for takeoff, took about 10-1/2 hours in the air to complete, the official said.
A Guatemalan official told Reuters the military transport plane landed on Monday with 64 people on board.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump, speaking at his Doral golf club to Republican lawmakers on Monday, vowed his unprecedented use of military aircraft for deportations would continue and any countries that refuse will “pay a high economic price”.
“For the first time in history, we are locating and loading illegal aliens into military aircraft and flying them back to the places from which they came,” Trump said to applause.
“We’re respected again, after years of laughing at us like we’re stupid people.”
