Deportation flights to Latin American countries from January 23 to February 3 cost the United States more than if Washington had decided to send the migrants first class on commercial airlines. The Pentagon told Izvestia that C-17 military transport planes were used seven times to ferry illegals to their countries of origin. In total, the states spent about $2 million just to service these flights. The conditions in which the migrants are transported have raised questions among Latin American authorities and human rights activists from the States. What will Trump's aggressive anti-migrant policy lead to - in the material of "Izvestia".
How much does it cost the United States to deport one migrant by military airplane?
Washington used military transport planes C-17 to deport illegal migrants, reported "Izvestia" in the US Department of Defense.
- According to information received from a defense official, since January 23, C-17 planes have made seven deportation flights," the Pentagon press service stressed.
The agency did not specify to which countries these planes were headed. Nevertheless, when analyzing open data, Izvestia managed to find out that one of the flights made by C-17s flew from Arizona to Guatemala, six flew from Texas - three to Guatemala, two to Colombia and one to Ecuador.
Usually, the U.S. does not use military aviation to deport illegal aliens; Immigration and Customs Enforcement deports them on commercial or charter flights. Now the need for its involvement is largely motivated by the emergency regime on the border with Mexico and the urgent need to quickly get rid of several thousand people. Deportation flights using C-17s are many times more expensive for the states than first-class tickets on commercial airlines for the same routes.
Guatemala was the first country to which the states began deporting illegal migrants. As of January 31, the Latin American state has already received back 455 fellow citizens. At the same time, judging by information from local media, only 303 of them arrived on military airplanes, 152, apparently, arrived on commercial airplanes.
The average flight from El Paso (Texas) to the Guatemalan capital takes six hours, from Tucson (Arizona) - about seven. Taking into account that an hour of use of C-17 costs more than $19.5 thousand (this figure is given by the U.S. Department of Defense), in total, the United States has already spent more than $487.8 thousand on deportation flights to Guatemala, or more than $1.7 thousand per person in the case of flights from Arizona (79 people were transported) and more than $1.5 thousand - from Texas (224 migrants). For comparison: one ticket for the flight Tucson - Guatemala of American Airlines costs $521 in economy and about $1.2 thousand in first class; on the direction El Paso - Guatemala a ticket in economy class of the same airline costs $487, first class - also about $1.2 thousand.
In the case of Ecuador, a flight from Big Field in Texas takes an average of about eight hours; such a flight on January 28 cost the states more than $156,000 or $1.9,000 per person (80 people flew).
Two deportation flights to Colombia on January 26 - it took about 8.5 hours - cost Washington in the neighborhood of $331.7 thousand and $1.6 thousand per person (a total of 201 illegals were transported).
Thus, excluding flight details, the seven C-17 sorties to and from Latin America cost the U.S. about $2 million round trip.
However, the C-17 is not the only military aircraft that Washington has used for the needs of the migration service. In addition to it, C-130 is also used for the transportation of illegal immigrants, an hour of which costs more than $15.7 thousand. However, the Pentagon did not mention it in its response. This model was most likely used to deport 78 and 48 people to Honduras on January 31 and 88 to Brazil on January 25.
Under what conditions migrants are deported
Inside the C-17s, there are four rows of seats, one along each side of the plane and two rows back-to-back in the center, a seating arrangement somewhat reminiscent of a subway car.
Throughout the flight, the migrants are handcuffed and their legs are bound. Some of the photos show U.S. military personnel escorting the migrants with M4 assault rifles in their hands.
According to some migrants, it was so stuffy on board that some passengers lost consciousness, were not allowed to go to the toilet, drink water, and were not fed. Citizens who arrived on one of the flights to Guatemala said that they were still given food, but it was impossible to eat it because their handcuffed hands were fixed at waist level. They were not uncuffed until five minutes before boarding. There were children on some of the flights, particularly the one to Ecuador. They, judging by the video, flew with their hands free. Handcuffed, the US sends migrants on commercial flights as well. This is how several hundred people returned to El Salvador on January 28.
The conditions under which the US deported illegal migrants to their countries have become a point of contention between Latin American governments and Donald Trump. The US administration has been accused of inhumane treatment of passengers on deportation flights.
For example, Colombian leader Gustavo Petro said, "Colombia will not accept Colombians and Colombian women in handcuffs because migrants are not criminals." Nevertheless, Bogotá later did make concessions on the issue. This is not the first time it has refused to accept a deportation flight: in 2023, the republic also turned back a flight with citizens detained at the Mexican border because they were flying in handcuffs.
Even less humane will be the treatment of migrants from those countries with which the U.S. has no agreement on deportation flights (among them Cuba and Nicaragua). In this case, the states have several options. After a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele offered his country's candidacy to receive migrants from third countries; he intends to keep them in prisons and charge the U.S. a certain fee. Another option is a camp on the territory of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where up to 30 thousand illegals can be placed. Some human rights organizations (among them Human Rights Watch) opposed this plan of Trump.
Such actions of the American administration in general find approval among his nuclear electorate, who have been waiting for a strong hand in the issue of migration, said Konstantin Blokhin, a leading researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. However, the discontent of Democratic Party supporters is unlikely to go beyond verbal criticism, the expert notes.
Some governments of Latin American countries also have a question about the need to use military airplanes. Recently, one of the planes had to overfly Mexico on its way to Guatemala because Mexico City requires diplomatic approval for military planes to fly over its territory at least a week in advance. However, they have virtually no leverage over Trump in this matter - the Republican responds to any resistance by threatening to increase trade duties on goods from these countries.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
