DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Tried To Buy 737s From Bankrupt Spirit Airlines That It Didn't Own And Also Didn't Have Engines

Fresh from spending $200 million taxpayer dollars on private jets in the middle of a government shutdown, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem apparently was also looking for ICE to purchase ten Boeing 737s from bankrupt (again) Spirit Airlines. This was supposedly for two reasons: her own personal use (because the private jets weren't enough) and also to enable more deportation flights faster. Sadly for Noem, this plan had just a couple of small problems — Spirit leases its aircraft and doesn't actually own any to sell, and the ones in question didn't have any engines anyway.

The Wall Street Journal broke the news, citing inside sources that aren't happy about how Noem is using ICE's massive new budget. Given that there are other (and cheaper) ways to increase deportation flights, such as just leveling up current contracts, the whole thing seems like it was more for show than to actually advance any policy. For that matter, as the article notes, ICE is having trouble actually arresting enough people to fill the Trump administration's targets. Maybe there's just not that many hardened undocumented criminals, and many of them are in fact working important jobs? Anyway, given that they've taken to arresting Koreans at a Hyundai plant, it doesn't seem like they have enough people to deport to fill ten 737s. Probably for the best, then, that the plan is on hold now.

Oh, and one other thing: Spirit doesn't even lease any Boeing 737s. In fact, the airline has only flown one 737 in its history, just in the summer of 2012. So this proposed deal sure had some holes in it. For what it's worth, the DHS responded to the WSJ by saying that some of the plane story was inaccurate. Which parts? They didn't say. So, there you are.

Spirit, for its part, is indeed trying to unload a bunch of its aerial inventory. The ailing company wants to return 114 planes to its lessors, or more than half its entire fleet. It's aiming to re-emerge from bankruptcy as a much leaner operation. It's hard times for the aviation industry in general, and smaller outfits are feeling the pinch hardest of all. It's enough to make an executive go crazy. Maybe crazy enough to sell some planes they don't actually have.