WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s military deportation flight to Guatemala on Monday (Jan 27) seemingly value at the very least US$4,675 per migrant, in accordance with information supplied by US and Guatemalan officers.
That’s greater than 5 occasions the US$853 value of a one-way firstclass ticket on American Airways from El Paso, Texas, the departure level for the flight, in accordance with a assessment of publicly accessible airfares.
Additionally it is considerably increased than the price of a business constitution flight by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Trump launched the navy deportation flights final week as a part of his national emergency declaration on immigration, thus far sending six planeloads of migrants on flights to Latin America.
Solely 4 have landed, all of them in Guatemala, after Colombia refused to let two US C-17 cargo aircraft land and as a substitute despatched its personal planes to gather migrants following a standoff with Trump.
A US official, talking to Reuters on situation of anonymity, estimated the price to function a C-17 navy transport plane is US$28,500 per hour. The flight forwards and backwards to Guatemala, not together with time on the bottom or any operations to arrange the flight for takeoff, took about 10-1/2 hours within the air to finish, the official mentioned.
A Guatemalan official instructed Reuters the navy transport aircraft landed on Monday with 64 folks on board.
The Pentagon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Trump, talking at his Doral golf membership to Republican lawmakers on Monday, vowed his unprecedented use of navy plane for deportations would proceed and any nations that refuse will “pay a excessive financial worth”.
“For the primary time in historical past, we’re finding and loading unlawful aliens into navy plane and flying them again to the locations from which they got here,” Trump mentioned to applause.
“We’re revered once more, after years of laughing at us like we’re silly folks.”
