Inside a luxury jet DHS wants to buy for deportations

WASHINGTON — An executive jet the Department of Homeland Security has told the White House’s Office of Management and Budget it needs for immigrant deportation flights and Cabinet officials’ travel features a bedroom with a queen bed, showers, a kitchen, four large flat-screen TVs and even a bar, according to images of the aircraft obtained by NBC News.

DHS recently began leasing the Boeing 737 Max 8, which DHS officials have described as a luxury jet, but now Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking approval from OMB to purchase it for $70 million, according to two DHS officials involved in the request. ICE told OMB that it would be used for deportations and travel for Cabinet officials, the two officials said.

A DHS spokesperson said “at least one of the bedrooms is currently being converted for seating to prepare the aircraft to meet the demands of its deportation mission set” when asked how the plane would be used for deportations.

Some officials at ICE, which is under DHS, initially deemed the aircraft too luxurious in the way it was outfitted to be used for immigrant deportations, according to one of the officials. The request to purchase the jet has prompted some DHS officials to privately question whether it is a necessary expense to support President Donald Trump’s mass deportations policy.

The spokesperson for DHS said the plane is intended to save taxpayer money.

“This new plane will serve dual missions— both as ICE deportation flights and for cabinet level travel,” the DHS spokesperson said in a statement. “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. This is part of Secretary Noem’s broader efforts to clamp down on inefficiencies and save taxpayer dollars.”

OMB did not respond to a request for comment.

The jet’s luxury interior design has space for a maximum of 18 passengers, and it can sleep 14 people, according to marketing materials obtained by NBC News.

Most deportation flights carry 50 to 100 detainees, as well as medics and security officers. Some planes used for deportations are equipped with metal bars in the floor where immigrants considered high-risk can be shackled.

One of the two DHS officials involved in the purchase request called the idea of using the jet for immigrant deportations “far-fetched.”

“But that’s what they’re claiming,” the official said of DHS leadership.

Typically, ICE uses charter flights rather than military planes or purchased planes for deportations.

Military flights for deportations had cost 10 times more than ICE charter flights when the military began deporting immigrants to the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, last year. The DHS spokesperson did not provide the cost of a luxury jet flight per person for deportations.

ICE has purchased five non-luxury 737s as part of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s plan for the agency to own its own deportation planes rather than use charter flights. The agency plans to procure a total of eight, one of the DHS officials said.

Political appointees at ICE and OMB reconsidered using the luxury version of the 737 after having discussed ways it could be “retrofitted” for deportations, according to the DHS officials.

“That particular plane was a ‘no,’ we weren’t going to buy it. Then all of a sudden, they said ‘yes,'” the official said.

The official added that they expect OMB to approve the purchase.

Noem recently flew on the jet for a trip to Tel Aviv, according to marketing materials provided to passengers on the trip that detailed the plane’s features.

The materials featured images of its various rooms and highlighted its “exceptional interior design by renowned New York designer Peter Marino.”

“No expense has been spared and every detail has been meticulously executed,” the brochure read.

DHS’ purchase of aircraft has raised questions internally before. Some Coast Guard officials viewed Noem’s purchase of a $170 million jet to replace an aging Coast Guard aircraft used for her travel as an unnecessary expense, NBC News has reported, citing two U.S. officials, a Coast Guard official, a former Coast Guard official and two DHS officials.