WASHINGTON: On January 3, a US military C-17 aircraft carried a group of Indian migrants back to India, according to a US officials. This marks another step in Donald Trump’s tough immigration policies, which have increasingly involved military resources for deportations and border control.
Interestingly, India is the farthest country yet where the US military has flown migrants for deportation. The report points out that Trump leaned heavily on military support to push his immigration agenda, from sending extra personnel to the US-Mexico border to using military bases to detain migrants.
The official, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed the C-17 took off for India, but said the journey would take at least 24 hours.
In addition to this, the Pentagon has started deporting over 5,000 migrants from El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California. Previously, military planes have flown deportees to Guatemala, Peru, and Honduras.
But this method comes with a hefty price tag. Reuters noted that a recent flight to Guatemala cost roughly $4,675 per migrant.
Donald Trump has repeatedly turned to the military to push his immigration agenda. He’s sent troops to the US-Mexico border, turned military bases into detention centers for migrants, and even used military planes to deport people. But all of this doesn’t come cheap. Reuters reports that flying migrants to Guatemala on a military plane last week cost about $4,675 per person. To put that in perspective, a first-class, one-way ticket on American Airlines from El Paso, Texas, is just $853, according to reports. That’s a huge difference, and it’s also much more expensive than the charter flights usually organized by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
But Trump’s crackdown hasn’t stopped at immigration. He’s also slapped tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, and hinted that Europe could be next. Canada managed to buy some time by promising $1.3 billion for measures to stop the flow of drugs and undocumented migrants across its border with the US, delaying the tariffs by a month. Mexico struck a similar deal by sending 10,000 troops to its border with the US.
However, more tariffs are just around the corner. Starting Tuesday, a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada will take effect, targeting the ongoing issues of illegal immigration and drug trafficking. China will face a smaller 10% tariff increase, and this time, there haven’t been any talks to try to prevent it.