Does the U.S. Department of Homeland Security need to get an estimated $70 million luxury jet with a bar to deport immigrants? According to a new report, that’s just what the department said its going to do.
NBC News reported that the Boeing 737 Max 8 jet has already been leased by the DHS in the past. Citing two unnamed DHS officials, the outlet said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a sub-agency of the DHS, plans to purchase it for the $70 million price tag and is currently seeking approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
According to NBC, the DHS said it needs the plane – which has a bedroom with a queen bed, showers, a kitchen and four large flat-screen TVs in addition to a bar – for immigrant deportation flights and Cabinet officials’ travel. One of the DHS officials who spoke to NBC said the idea of using it for deportation flights seems “far-fetched.”
“But that’s what they’re claiming,” the official said of DHS leadership.
Marketing materials obtained by NBC News indicate that the luxury jet can sleep up to 14 people. That’s not close to the estimated 50 to 100 detainees (along with as medics and security officers) that most deportation flights carry, the outlet added.
When it was first proposed, some officials at ICE thought the aircraft was too luxurious to be used for deportation flights, NBC noted. However, a DHS spokesperson said that a bedroom area on the jet is being converted into seating for those flights and that the plane purchase is intended to save taxpayer money.
“This plane flies at 40% cheaper than what the military aircraft flies for ICE deportation flights – saving the American taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars,” the spokesperson said in a statement. "This is part of [DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s] broader efforts to clamp down on inefficiencies and save taxpayer dollars.”
NBC said Noem recently flew on the jet for a trip to Tel Aviv, Israel, citing marketing materials. In the materials, it was reportedly referred to as a having ““exceptional interior design by renowned New York designer Peter Marino.”
ICE usually uses charter flights rather than military planes or purchased planes for deportations, per NBC. Previously, ICE purchased five non-luxury 737s as part of Noem’s plan for the agency to own its own deportation planes rather than charter flights. Eventually, agency plans to procure a total of eight, one of the DHS officials told NBC. Those officials also told the outlet that political appointees at ICE and OMB “reconsidered using the luxury version of the 737,” after discussion of it being retrofitted.
“That particular plane was a ‘no,’ we weren’t going to buy it,” said the official, according to NBC. “Then all of a sudden, they said ‘yes.’”
OMB is expected to approve the purchase, according to the official. NBC said the department did not respond to a request for comment.
Noem’s purchase of a different $170 million jet to replace an aging Coast Guard aircraft used for her travel was also questioned by some Coast Guard officials, the outlet added. There was also controversy last year about an estimated $1 billion luxury jet Qatar wanted to gift to the U.S. and President Donald Trump as a potential Air Force One aircraft.
This recent jet purchase proposal comes on the heels of the controversial Operation Metro Surge Deployment in Minneapolis, Minn. After the death of two U.S. citizens by federal agents during the operation, even Republican lawmakers joined in the backlash against Noem, with some calling for her to be fired.
CNN also reported this week that the DHS admitted that its “worst of the worst” website of arrested immigrants was “rife with errors.”