Military aircraft are no longer being used to transport illegal immigrants to the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or their home countries, according to defense officials.
President Donald Trump has made mass deportations of illegal immigrants the centerpiece of his second term. But The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the administration has discovered that using military aircraft to transport them is too expensive and inefficient.
Officials who spoke with the Journal said that the last military deportation flight occurred on March 1, and the Pentagon said Tuesday that no deportation flights were scheduled for the next 48 hours. According to a defense official, a flight scheduled for Thursday was canceled and it's unknown if or when the pause will be lifted.
The decision to use military aircraft for deportation flights was made shortly after Trump took office Jan. 20 to send a message about his administration's intent to crack down on illegal immigration, defense officials told the Journal. The flights had traditionally been handled by the Department of Homeland Security.
"The message is clear: If you break the law, if you are a criminal, you can find your way at Guantanamo Bay," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week. "You don't want to be at Guantanamo Bay."
Flight-tracking data showed that the administration deployed approximately 30 migrant flights using C-17 aircraft and about a dozen using C-130 aircraft, with destinations including Ecuador, Guantanamo Bay, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Panama and Peru.
According to the Journal's analysis, the military flights have taken longer routes and moved fewer migrants at a higher cost to U.S. taxpayers than the standard deportation flights using civilian aircraft.
Some flights heading to Guantanamo Bay carried a dozen migrants at a cost of at least $20,000 each, and three deportation flights to India cost $3 million each.
The average cost of a standard Immigration and Customs Enforcement flight is $8,577 per flight hour, according to the agency's air operations division. Former ICE officials told the Journal that the figure rises to $17,000 per flight hour for international trips.
A C-17, which is designed to carry troops and heavy cargo, costs $28,500 per hour to fly, according to U.S. Transportation Command, which provided the planes.
On top of that, C-17 flights bound for Central and South America have not been using Mexico's airspace, adding several hours to the journey, because Mexico and some other Latin American countries have reportedly not allowed the military deportation flights to land.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.