DHS wants to create its own round-the-clock deportation airline
The US government is moving ahead with plans to create its own fleet of government-owned aircraft to bolster deportations.
The Department of Homeland Security is beginning a search for a company to operate planes that would help carry out deportation flights, respond to emergencies and transport senior officials. The department asked aviation companies this week to describe how they would operate and maintain the fleet, which would include two C-37B or equivalent Gulfstream 650ERs and seven Boeing 737-700s or similar models.
The post outlines an operation capable of flying around the clock — even on short notice — with domestic and overseas missions supported through what DHS describes as a hub-and-spoke network. Contractors would provide pilots, co-pilots and flight attendants and, when needed, flight nurses and security personnel. The request is part of the government’s market research before a formal competition would go out for the contract.
The aircraft would support deportation and voluntary repatriation flights, transport crisis-response teams, conduct medical evacuations and other high-risk missions, and carry senior department officials on continuity-of-government and diplomatic trips, according to the notice.
The effort marks another step in the Trump administration’s push to build out immigration enforcement infrastructure after securing tens of billions of dollars from Congress for deportations, detention and border security. Rather than relying entirely on chartered aircraft, the notice shows DHS is making moves to assemble a fleet it would own while outsourcing flight operations to a private contractor. [Continue reading…]