Jan 25, 2025 - Politics & Policy

Trump admin seeking more planes for deportations

Sareen Habeshian

Immigrants prepare to be transported by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on January 20, 2025 near Sasabe, Arizona. Immigrant families had passed through a gap in the Trump-built border wall hours before Donald J. Trump was inaugurated for a second time as President of — Immigrants prepare to be transported by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on Jan. 20, near Sasabe, Arizona. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

The Trump administration is working on securing more aircrafts to expedite deportations, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told reporters on Friday.

The big picture: President Trump has long vowed to crackdown on immigration and expel millions of undocumented people unauthorized to stay in the U.S., and in his first week in office he has already begun the process.

Zoom in: Miller said the ability of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to deport people has lagged because of a lack of planes.

"You have obviously DHS air assets, you have DOD air assets, you have State Department air assets, you have commercial air assets, you have charter air assets, so every asset that can be used to conduct a lawful deportation," Miller told reporters, per Bloomberg.
Neither the White House nor ICE immediately responded to Axios' request for comment Friday evening.

Zoom out: The administration is planning to use military aircraft every day as part of Trump's deportation plan, "border czar" Tom Homan told ABC News.

He said the U.S. government for the time used military aircraft this week to transport migrants, adding that it will become a daily occurrence, per ABC.
"If you're in the country illegally, you're on the table because it's not okay to, you know, violate the laws of this country," Homan said.

Go deeper: Mayor accuses ICE of detaining vet, U.S. citizens in N.J. immigration raid

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Trump admin seeking more planes for deportations

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