Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas: Busload after Busload after Busload of illegal migrants are being loaded up on military aircraft and flown to their home countries
The flights are FULL, “Migrants on board traveled for months to get to the US,” they are “returned to Central America in 5 hours”
Video Transcript AI Summary
We witnessed the unprecedented use of military transport jets to deport migrants from the US to Ecuador and Guatemala. A single C-17 flight costs over $28,000 per hour, far exceeding the cost of commercial charter flights. Flights to Guatemala cost nearly $300,000 each, with at least 15 flights already completed. Military planes are also transporting migrants to Guantanamo Bay, at a cost of over $20,000 per person on early flights with low occupancy. While the administration justifies the expense, the use of charter flights would be significantly cheaper. Daily flights to Guantanamo are planned. Current ICE arrests average 500 per day, compared to 300 under the Biden administration. The military’s involvement sends a strong deterrent message.
Speaker 0: We could see about 80 men, women, and children, recent arrivals in The US, stepping off buses and stepping on to military transport jets. This group was going to Ecuador. Two Days later, border patrol and the army allowed us onto the base for a closer look at another full flight, this time going to Guatemala. Some of the migrants on board traveled for months to get to The US. They would return to Central America in five hours.
It's a move former acting immigration and customs enforcement director John Sandwick told us was unprecedented.
Speaker 1: We never used the military aircraft. I mean, ICE is funded by Congress, so that for up to a billion dollars annually for transportation.
Speaker 0: CBS News found a single flight on a c 17 can run more than $28,000 per hour. That's more than three times what ICE pays on average for its normal charter flights on regular passenger aircraft. So the flight we saw headed to Guatemala cost nearly $300,000 1 of at least 15 military flights so far landed in India with a round trip cost of more than $1,000,000 Military planes are also carrying migrants to Guantanamo Bay. The first flight on a c 17, which can carry as many as 134 passengers, had about 10 detainees on board, an average cost of more than $20,000 per person. The US military is also expanding a migrant operation center there to hold as many as 30,000 people.
In 1994, when 45,000 migrants sheltered at Guantanamo and Panama, government estimates put the cost at nearly half a billion dollars, equivalent to more than a billion dollars today.
Speaker 1: You know, ICE is well funded when it comes to transportation. It was certainly something that we never needed. We're in an unprecedented era where immigration enforcement has been elevated to the highest levels of US foreign policy and national security.
Speaker 2: Jason now joins us from Dallas. Jason, you know, the administration and president's supporters would say, yeah, maybe these are big numbers. It's expensive, but there's a justification for this. Right?
Speaker 0: Right, John. And that is the cost of keeping some of those migrants here. Our own CBS analysis has found it's a couple hundred days for a single or a couple hundred dollars for a single male for a day. It's double that for a family. We know that cities have put the cost in the billions to house and feed some of these migrants that have moved into the country.
So that's what this is being weighed against.
Speaker 1: Jason, all of this begs the question, could this be done less expensively?
Speaker 0: It could be, Maurice, if you are using some of those charter flights, that we talked about. Right? But that does have a limited capacity. So then you look again. Could you put some more people on some of these flights, especially these early flights to Guantanamo Bay that have had 15 people on them, a dozen people?
We know that the administration does wanna make those daily flights here in the near future.
Speaker 2: And the military use of military planes, of course, sends, like, a deterrence message. Jason, finally, how does this compare to, like, the Obama years, say, and the deportations that were high during Obama's term?
Speaker 0: Sure. Good question. We did get some new numbers today from the administration, and that's the number of ICE arrests since the president has been in office is now up to 11,000. So we can compare that to the Biden administration, which was doing about 300 day. This translates over works out to an average of about 500 ICE arrests a day right now.
Speaker 1: Okay. Jason Alley on the story tonight in Dallas. Thank you, Jason.
