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The use of military aircraft to carry out deportation flights is part of the Pentagon’s plan to fulfill Trump’s emergency declaration – marking the first time military planes have been used to transport deportees since President Dwight Eisenhower was in office, Reuters reported, citing an unnamed US official.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the New York Post, “Thanks to President Trump, yesterday Mexico accepted a record four deportation flights in one day! This comes in addition to unrestricted returns at the land border, the deportation of non-Mexicans, and the reinstatement of Remain-in-Mexico. Mexico has also mobilized 30,000 National Guard.” 

National Emergency Declared

On Monday Trump declared a national emergency at the US-Mexico border and restricted refugees and asylum. He described his plan to halt all illegal entry and reduce border crime. And for the first time cartels and organized migrant gangs were designated as foreign terrorist organizations.

This development comes amid the Trump administration’s revival of the "Remain in Mexico" program, which the Biden administration had rejected. It requires non-Mexican asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while awaiting U.S. immigration court decisions.

One of President Trump’s first moves was to beef up security at the border and order mass raids and deportations.

On Friday, the White House shared images on X of handcuffed migrants boarding a military plane with the caption, “Deportation flights have begun.” 

President Trump described the ongoing flights as part of an “all hands-on deck" effort to remove “the most dangerous criminals” from America.

Trump, who started his second term this week, has signed a series of executive orders aimed at curbing illegal migration, including deploying military forces at the southern border and declaring a national emergency. The administration has labeled the initiative as “the largest mass deportation operation in history.”

During the Biden administration, 270,000 migrants were deported in 2023—a number not reached during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021.

In contrast, Trump’s policies denied instant access to immigrants whereas Biden created an open-door policy by dismantling Trump's original "Remain in Mexico" plan. So, there were millions more immigrants, some of them criminals from other countries allowed into the US.