ICE Barbie Kristi Noem reportedly wants to spend billions to send her masked goons to the skies as the operators of the first Immigration and Customs Enforcement airline.
Sources told NBC News that Noem wants a fleet of around 30 passenger planes to step up ICE’s deportation flights in order to reach President Donald Trump’s goal of 1 million removals of undocumented immigrants per year.
At an estimated cost of around $80 million to $400 million per plane, the agency is looking at a price tag of up to $12 billion, NBC News reported. Adding to that would be the cost of maintenance, staffing and fuel compared to the roughly $25,000 per hour the agency currently pays to charter flights through third-party airlines. That cost includes the pilot and supporting staff.
“If the goal is to get to 30 to 35,000 removals a month, you would need to double the number of planes,” said Jason Houser, who served as ICE chief of staff from 2022 to 2023.
Houser claimed he also considered ICE operating its own planes during the Biden administration, but ultimately did not have the funding to do so. He said the agency charted around 13 to 14 planes at a time “because of the amount of money and resources.”
On the contrary, President Trump dolled out over $75 billion for ICE’s operations in his Big Beautiful Bill, which could fuel ICE Barbie’s deportation operations, and then some. NBC News data reports that ICE has deported an estimated 150,000 undocumented immigrants, including self-deportations, in Trump’s first six months in office.
ICE owning and operating it’s own fleet of planes could also eliminate the blowback airlines have received from working with the agency.
Avelo Airlines, a low-cost airline based out of Houston, Texas, has been hit with outrage and boycotts by protesters rebuking the airline as “ICE Air” over it’s charter flight contracts with ICE.
The airline announced in July that it would shutter its west coast operations by mid-August, Los Angeles 4 reported. According to the airline, protests over its deportation flights were not a factor.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland security for confirmation of its plan to operate it’s own fleet of planes.
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