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The US government is reportedly moving forward with a major expansion plan. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, is expecting to procure ten commercial aircraft as a part of its growing deportation fleet. This move is a change from its existing practice of using Charter flights from private operators and domestic airlines.
Aviation A2Z reports that the total budget under consideration is $464 million. This sum is slated to pay for a mix of both Boeing 737 single-aisle jetliners and Gulfstream G650 business jets. Currently, it is expected that there will be eight 737s and two G650s purchased.
A Private Airline For A Controversial Agency
Defunding for the new deportation fleet comes from a larger $29.9 billion pool slated for the immigration agenda of the Donald Trump presidential Administration. The nearly half a billion dollar aircraft procurement is much larger than any previous reports indicated may be possible. In December 2025, it appeared that ICE would purchase six Boeing 737 aircraft for $140 million from Daedalus Aviation, according to the Washington Post.
The newly announced budget is more than triple the previous amount publicly disclosed. NOTUS, an outlet that specializes in political news from Capitol Hill, reports that the planned purchase was only recently made public via Office of Management and Budget documents published in late March.
The Gulfstream business jets are planned to be ‘dual use’ for deportation flights as well as executive travel for the leadership of the Department of Homeland Security, according to DC Newsroom. This is a particularly surprising announcement considering that recently fired DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was dismissed in large part due to plans to acquire a $70 million luxury Boeing 737.
Noem’s proposed jet could only seat 18 passengers despite being claimed as a ‘dual-use’ platform. Congressman Mike Levin of California had this to say when his office learned of the aircraft being considered under Noem:
“Secretary Noem’s decision is not just a waste of money — it is a failure of leadership and an insult to taxpayers. Kristi Noem’s jets are more than a waste of money.”
The ICE Fleet: Convict Air Or Party Planes?
What makes the new plan even more questionable over Kristi Noem’s plan for a private 737 and the new pair of G650s on the table is that the business jets are not only lower in capacity but actually more expensive as well. The luxurious appointments of the 737, in contrast to the low capacity, made it a scandalous procurement proposition. The Gulfstream’s seat around the same number but cost $10 or $20 million more per plane.
Compounding this very strange decision to opt for bizjets instead of airliners is that an executive outfitted 737 can be reconfigured with modifications to increase its seating capacity. A tiny G650 private jet cannot get bigger, and is completely unable to accommodate a higher number of passengers. That severely limits its usefulness in terms of deportation activities and essentially restricts it to only executive transport.
The only saving grace that the G650 can rely on to counter its economic and practical value by comparison to the larger airliner is the cost per flight hour. In this regard, the smaller Jets do have an advantage as their average operating cost is roughly half that of a Boeing 737. This argument, however, is only valid if the two planes have the same seating capacity, as a twin-aisle jet with over 100 passengers is far cheaper to fly per seat.
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Trump wants his new jet ASAP.
The DHS Deals: Corruption On The Flightline?
Daedalus has also received more than $1 billion in payments from DHS contracts through Salus Worldwide Solutions, which is connected to former DHS advisor Corey Lewandowski. He also had a major role from within the government in reviewing DHS contracts, prompting increased scrutiny of the plan, according to NOTUS.
The investigation into Lewandowski is linked to the aircraft expansion plan because he reportedly served as the primary architect and ‘shadow administrator’ of the department’s controversial contracting process, as NBC covered. Lawmakers are now investigating DHS contractors for their roles in reviewing contracts with ties to Lewandowski related to the aircraft purchases and Salus Worldwide activities.
