Trump Administration Suspends Military Flights For Deportations Due To High Costs: Report

Last Updated:March 06, 2025, 14:19 IST

The military flights used for deportations turned out to be a costly affair for the United States.

Detained migrants to boarding a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft. (Reuters)

The Trump administration has ceased transporting illegally arrived migrants to Guantanamo Bay or other nations using military aircraft, defence officials informed.

According to The Wall Street Journal, military planes part of Trump’s plan to deport illegal immigrants back to their countries of origin or to a military installation in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have proven to be costly and ineffective.

Soon after Trump took over the presidential office in January, he made deporting illegal immigrants back to their countries of origin his top priority. However, military transport turned out to be a costly affair for civilian deportation flights, despite its initial goal of supporting the administration’s strong posture.

According to reports, the last such flight took place on March 1. A scheduled flight for Thursday was canceled, and officials verified that no other flights were planned for the next 48 hours. Although this delay might be brief, officials indicated that it might turn into a long-term policy shift.

Flight-tracking data revealed that the administration conducted approximately 30 deportation flights using C-17 aircraft and around a dozen using C-130 planes. These flights transported migrants to countries such as India, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Honduras, and Panama, in addition to Guantanamo Bay. However, military deportations proved significantly more expensive than conventional deportation flights operated by the Department of Homeland Security, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Diplomatic Challenges

Costs were further increased by operational limitations. Due to their avoidance of Mexican airspace, military aircraft flew longer distances and for longer periods of time. Furthermore, a number of Latin American countries, including Mexico, refused to allow US military deportation planes to land.

In fact, some nations dispatched their own planes or made arrangements for deported people to return on commercial flights.

A diplomatic stalemate resulted from Colombia’s initial refusal to accept deportation flights on US military aircraft.

Following threats of tariffs from President Donald Trump, the White House declared that Colombia has consented to take deportees without any conditions. Since then, though, the Colombian government has chosen to use its planes for repatriations, and no US military flights have touched down in Colombia.

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