What’s missing from Bloomberg’s story about the DHS ‘deportation’ fleet

On Friday, Bloomberg News published a story about the Department of Homeland Security’s seven Boeing 737s and two Gulfstream 650s with the headline “DHS wants to create its own round-the-clock deportation airline.”

My first response? Hallelujah! Finally, a story about these planes that members of Congress might actually notice! If you follow on me on Bsky, then you likely know I have found it frustrating that despite publishing multiple stories about these planes and sending those stories directly to Dems in both chambers, they have continued to undercount the number of planes DHS has lately acquired. They usually only mention the BBJ and the two new Coast Guard Gulfstream 700s, when I knew there were nine more whole-ass planes.

But no matter, the truth has outed at last, with a spotlight brighter than I could muster. (And, curiously, no mention of my previous mustering in February, March or April. Nor of Nick Schwellenbach and Dan Friedman’s tireless chronicling of the MAGA grifters DHS has been enriching with this scheme since last October.)

The Bloomberg story has one meaty new nugget, a DHS document requesting companies describe how they would crew, operate and maintain this fleet of deportation jets. By and large, though – and I swear I’m not trying to be an asshole – the vague narrative serves as a perfect example of getting the facts right but story all wrong.

According to them, Bloomberg first reported Daedalus Aviation’s purchase of “several” 737s from ICE-charter Avelo Airlines in January; that FAA records list “several” of them are “now” owned by DHS; and that DHS has also acquired two G650s.

But the G650s were acquired before the 737s, by other shell companies connected to Daedalus that Bloomberg still seems to be unaware of, and were transferred to DHS in February, at about the same time the first five 737s were.

As I reported at the time, a source at Avelo told me the sale of the first five planes was unexpected and came about when Daedalus approached Avelo offering an enormous sum – far above their value – to rush the sale, which required them to break their contract with ICE. This is important, because the Bloomberg story repeats DHS’s claim that owning its own fleet will keep costs down without any pushback.

Daedalus didn’t acquire the final two Avelo planes until April 6 and 7, two weeks into Mullin’s tenure, which I first reported on April 15. Again, this detail is important, because the Bloomberg story says the new documents “this week” indicate he’s moving ahead with deportation fleet. But if you read my story in April, you already knew that.

The story also doesn’t mention that ICE currently charters 18 to 30 aircraft every single day, so even if all of their new planes are operating at capacity, they won’t be able to replace chartered planes entirely.

Bloomberg connecting their sudden acknowledgement of the fleet to the new documents, or at least blurring the timeline of their acquisition, also obscures a key truth: These planes were purchased in a rush, and have been sitting around in hangars collecting dust since.

Last December, when the Washington Post first reported on DHS’s plan to operate its own deportation airline, then-deputy press secretary Trish McLaughlin told them she was “delighted” they were “highlighting the Trump administration’s cost-effective and innovative ways of delivering on” mass deportations. She claimed it would save taxpayers $279 million – a number she most likely pulled from a dank corner of hell.

I called bullshit on the supposed savings at the time and expressed skepticism about the federal government’s ability to stand up its own airline. They still had to hire and train flight crew! and dispatchers! and aircraft mechanics! That would be hard for industry veterans, and the grifters at Daedalus, who were supposed to manage this process on DHS’s behalf and then hand over the keys, had no airline experience. None.

I remained skeptical after they managed to acquire planes with engines (lol). I remained skeptical after flight data showed the planes ferrying the aircraft to modification facilities and later doing test flights. I even remained skeptical after they successfully completed a handful of international passenger flights in March – repatriating Americans stranded in the Middle East due to Trump’s attack on Iran.

(Yes, it is chef’s kiss cosmic screenwriting that the deportation fleet has thus far only repatriated.)

Daedalus and DHS have been trying to go on a hiring spree since at least February. Hell, their help wanted page is still up, looking to hire for literally every kind of worker an airline needs. And now, after frantically buying planes that haven’t moved for months, DHS is putting out an open call for someone, anyone, to come take over?

So sure, as the Bloomberg headline says, DHS wants to create its own deportation airline. But we’ve known that since last year. What the new documents actually show is that they’ve failed. Far from saving money, they have likely burned through hundreds of millions, and they still failed. No one wants be an ICE pilot or an ICE flight attendant.

That’s the story.

The pilots for ICE’s current charter airlines are largely immigrants, so applying to the government’s “round-the-clock” deportation airline may have been a bridge too far for even their rank opportunism to cross – or perhaps prohibited by Trump’s xenophobic goon squad.

The flight attendants for ICE’s current charter airlines, many of whom are young people of color, still get to fly with the occasional sports team or rock band. The moral-injury flights aren’t “round the clock,” and yet they’re still quitting in disgust in droves. No one wants to hurtle in a metal tube to the suffocated corners of the world with shackled, weeping people, whose only crimes were yearning to breathe free, and mistakenly believing America still held a torch whose flame glowed worldwide welcome.

I will look with interest for the responses DHS gets back, if any. But I remain skeptical. I do not expect the barely competent will save the incompetent. It was a stupid idea in the first place.

Thank you for reading. I am a former Washington Post staff writer, and as far as I know, I’m the only journalist in America covering ICE flights full time. I am committed to keeping this reporting non-paywalled, but if you are able, please sign up for a paid subscription or send me a one-time tip, so I can continue this important work. –Gillian