Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered Spirit Airlines jets before realizing the airline didn’t own the planes — and that those aircraft didn’t have engines, according to a report.
Noem and top adviser Corey Lewandowski planned on using the ten 737 planes from Spirit to increase the number of deportation flights — as part of President Donald Trump’s agenda — as well as to use them for their own travel, sources told the Wall Street Journal. The Trump administration is on pace to deport 600,000 immigrants by the end of the year, the DHS said in September.
Some warned the pair that the proposal would be much more expensive than hiring additional flight contractors, the sources said. Throwing another wrench into the pair’s plans, Spirit, which filed for bankruptcy for the second time in August, didn’t own the planes and the jets’ engines would need to be purchased separately.
The effort has since been put on hold, the Journal reported.
The Independent has contacted DHS and Spirit for more information.
However, at some point during the longest-ever government shutdown, DHS purchased two Gulfstream jets for $200 million, Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee said last month.
“It has come to our attention that, in the midst of a government shutdown, the United States Coast Guard entered into a sole source contract with Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation to procure two new G700 luxury jets to support travel for you and the Deputy Secretary, at a cost to the taxpayer of $200 million,” Democratic Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Lauren Underwood said in a letter to DHS in October.
A spokesperson for DHS told the Journal that some of its reporting around buying the planes was inaccurate, but didn’t elaborate further.
Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which Congress passed in July, provided DHS roughly $170 billion to use toward his immigration agenda.
That money has given “ICE the funding for bold, innovative ways to swiftly remove” migrants, the spokesperson told the paper.
The plan to use the Spirit planes is an example of how Noem’s splashier strategy to push Trump’s deportation agenda has clashed with that of border czar Tom Homan, who has reportedly favored using more traditional techniques, such as using police research to create lists of targets, the Journal reported.
Homan allegedly informed Trump of concerns he’d heard from senior immigration officials “who had complained Noem and Lewandowski’s initiatives were getting in the way of operations,” sources told the outlet.
Fox News’ Laura Ingraham pressed Homan last month about allegations that there was “growing friction” around the deportation strategy.
Homan dodged the question, and instead replied: “Look, we are all being aggressive. I have said from day one we are going to concentrate on public safety threats and national security threats.” He added: “As we get more agents on you will see arrests increase twice, three times, you are going to see the numbers skyrocket.”
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