During the height of the unaccompanied alien minor crisis this summer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement flew an average of 162 children on more than two flights per day to cities and military bases across the U.S.
Those figures were listed in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to The Daily Caller’s Freedom of Information Act request for flight data.
ICE provided records for between June 8 and July 9.
Aircraft operated by ICE Air Operations, the agency’s own fleet of planes, hold 135 passengers per flight, explained ICE spokesman Bryan Cox. At $8,600 per flight hour, it costs the government $63 to fly each person per hour.
“On any given flight, ICE Air Operations makes every attempt to maximum the flight and use available seats consistent with available bedspace in the receiving area,” said Cox. “ICE Air Operations generally transports a mixture of adults and juveniles.”
According to the records, ICE flight traffic hit its peak on June 20 when 320 unaccompanied alien children, or UACs, were flown on four separate flights.
The majority of ICE Air flights originated in Brownsville and San Antonio, Tex., said Cox. Flight hours varied depending on the destination of each plan.
“Subsequently, the cost per flight fluctuated with the number of flight hours required to fulfill each mission to transfer passengers to designated locations, both military bases and various cities throughout the United States,” Cox told TheDC through email.
More than 60,000 unaccompanied alien children — mostly from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras — were apprehended at the southern border in Texas over the summer. Tens of thousands of adults were apprehended as well, though the children were a main focal point for the media.
Three military bases — Fort Sill Army Base in Oklahoma, Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, and Naval Base Ventura County in California — all provided housing for the UACs as they awaited placement with family members or sponsors.
Federal law requires that UACs from countries that do not border the U.S. must be turned over to the care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement while they await deportation proceedings.
Cox was unable to put the flight statistics into historical context, telling TheDC that ICE Air Operations did not track statistics for UACs in previous years.
The catalyst for the unprecedented surge of UACs was hotly debated during the summer, mostly along party lines. Democrats claimed that poor conditions in the Central American countries forced immigrants to flee to the U.S.
Republicans argued that President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative led Central Americans to believe that they would receive amnesty once they arrived to the U.S.
On Thursday night, Obama is set to announce an executive action which will grant amnesty to up to 5 million illegal immigrants.