Lawmakers sound the alarm on ICE ‘ghost flights’

A group of 32 congressional Democrats is calling for the Federal Aviation Administration to help hold Immigration and Customs Enforcement accountable following reports that the Department of Homeland Security unit is withholding aviation data. While deportation flights significantly increased last year, data about the air operations is difficult to find, according to the House members’ letter to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford. The representatives are asking for a detailed report about ICE’s use of the Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed (LADD) program and whether the FAA is aware of additional data-suppression methods contributing to the decreased transparency. The program “was established to enable private aircraft owners and operators of non-commercial flights to filter their flight data from public display websites,” the coalition said in the letter sent Monday. “ICE’s use of this program to obscure routine government operations and suppress information about deportation flights is out of the scope of this program, and therefore inappropriate and dangerous.”

The price tag for the Golden Dome for America could reach $1.2 trillion to develop, deploy and operate over 20 years, according to a new report published Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office. The updated cost estimate is based on a “notional” missile defense architecture that broadly includes capabilities outlined in President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order calling for Golden Dome’s development. CBO’s projections are significantly larger than the $185 billion already budgeted for the project — with space-based interceptors (SBIs) accounting for over half of the office’s estimate. “Of the $1.2 trillion amount, acquisition costs for the notional [national missile defense] system would total just over $1 trillion,” the report stated. “The most expensive component is the space-based interceptor layer, which accounts for about 70 percent of acquisition costs and 60 percent of total costs.”

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