ICE Barbie Fails to Turbocharge Deportations in Wild Scheme

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her top adviser, Corey Lewandowski, ordered ten Spirit Airlines jets to ramp up deportations—and to use for their own leisure—before realizing the airline didn’t own the planes, and that the planes had no engines.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that the pair signed off on the expensive endeavor even as officials suggested that simply hiring additional flight contractors would be far less costly.

Noem’s blunder is one small part of her efforts to up deportation numbers, as she is reportedly looking to replicate the public spectacle currently unfolding in Chicago, dubbed “Midway Blitz,” the Journal reported.

U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse — Gregory Bovino has a background in chasing migrants and drug smugglers through border terrain. Chicago Tribune/Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Blunder aside, DHS forged ahead with more plans to increase deportation flights, recently purchasing two Gulfstream jets for $200 million. But shortly after, the department notified the Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee that the project was paused.

The secretary has now set her sights on replacing ICE leaders across the country with Border Patrol veterans to impose a more heavy-handed, military-style approach to Trump’s immigration crackdown—even as her efforts in Chicago haven’t been as successful as she may have hoped.

Led by Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, the operation’s militarized enforcement tactics and aggressive approaches have sparked public outcry. Footage and testimony have shown federal officers firing pepper-ball rounds and tear gas—even around children—while clashing with protesters. ICE agents have also been spotted roaming quiet neighborhoods, questioning landscapers and decorators.

Still, the militant approach hasn’t appeased the White House or met its steep daily deportation quotas.

ICE and Border Protection agents had made 3,000 arrests in Chicago over two months as of late October—the same number the White House has demanded they make in a single day, the Journal reported.

The approach in Chicago is rooted in the idea that immigrants will self-deport out of fear, bolstering numbers. But Noem’s methods—and the mounting pressure from the White House—have sparked infighting among DHS officials as they grapple with how best to proceed, the Journal reported.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino visits with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at the ICE facility in Chicago to observe enforcement operations, Oct. 3, 2025. — Kristi Noem and Greg Bovino visits at the ICE facility in Chicago in October. DHS photo by Tia Dufour

Border czar Tom Homan and ICE Director Todd Lyons favor an old-school, less hostile approach, including using police research to develop target lists and focusing on those with criminal histories, sources told the Journal. But while Homan is influential in the White House, Noem has the final say.

Trump has also sided with the aggression seen in the Windy City so far, saying in a 60 Minutes interview last week that ICE officials “haven’t gone far enough” in Chicago.

The Daily Beast has reached out to DHS and ICE for comment. A spokesperson for DHS denied there were divisions in the department in a statement to the Journal, adding that Trump’s administration is on pace to “shatter records and deport 600,000 people by the end of Trump’s first year.”

Noem’s shake-up comes even as a federal judge on Thursday accused Bovino, 55, of lying to her in court as she imposed sweeping limits on a hardline anti-migrant crackdown in Illinois.

Bovino previously claimed he was hit in the head with a rock before he lobbed gas at anti-ICE protesters in Chicago—a claim he later admitted was false after DHS couldn’t produce evidence to support it.

In an oral ruling, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said, “I find the government’s evidence to be simply not credible,” after weeks of tear-gassings, pepper-ball strikes, and hard takedowns against journalists, clergy, and residents during “Operation Midway Blitz,” with excessive violence that she said “shocks the conscience.”

The Obama-appointed judge’s ruling bars federal agents from using riot-control weapons on nonviolent people, requires warnings before deploying chemical munitions, and mandates body cameras and clear identification for officers.

Bovino has defended the use of force as “more than exemplary.”

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