The Donald Trump administration has suspended the use of costly military aircraft to fly migrants who entered the US illegally, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The report said that the use of US military aircraft to transport some migrants to their home countries or to a military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has proved expensive and inefficient.
US defence officials told The Wall Street Journal that no flights were scheduled for the coming days, with the last military deportation flight occurring March 1. They said the pause could be extended or made permanent.
A report by the news agency Reuters said that a US military deportation flight to Guatemala cost at least $4,675 per migrant, according to data provided by US and Guatemalan officials.
That is more than five times the $853 cost of a one-way first-class ticket on American Airlines from El Paso, Texas, the departure point for the flight, according to a review of publicly available airfares.
It is also significantly higher than the cost of a commercial charter flight by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
US President Donald Trump was elected on a promise to carry out the biggest deportation "in the history of America". While most of the migrants being targeted for expulsion come from Latin America, some are also being sent back much further across the globe.
Trump launched the military deportation flights in January as part of his national emergency declaration on immigration, so far sending six planeloads of migrants on flights to Latin America.
