DHS Now Using Its $464 Million Jet Fleet to Fly Kash Patel and Tom Homan, Senators Say

DHS spent $464 million on a fleet of planes that sat mostly idle at an airport in Lake Charles, Louisiana, for months. Now, according to a letter from Senators Patty Murray and Chris Murphy released Thursday, some of those jets are flying, just not for deportations.

Murray, the Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Murphy, Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee, say DHS has been using its newly acquired jets, including luxury aircraft, to fly Trump administration officials around the country. The senators name FBI Director Kash Patel and border czar Tom Homan specifically.

"It has come to our attention that the Department of Homeland Security is effectively running an in-house private jet service for Trump administration officials," Murray and Murphy wrote in their letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, according to a release from the Senate Appropriations Committee. They sent a copy to the DHS Inspector General, saying the acquisition and use of the planes "merits investigation."

No investigation has been opened as of Thursday. The letter is a request for one, not a finding of wrongdoing.

From Grounded to Airborne

The fleet itself has been the subject of scrutiny since The New York Times reported that DHS bought 10 used jets, including seven older Boeing 737s and three luxury business jets, through a no-bid contract with Daedalus Aviation Corporation, a northern Virginia firm whose chairman donated to a political action committee run by former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

Seven of the 737s reportedly weren't being flown because DHS lacked the staff to operate them, according to an internal government document cited by the Times. DHS had also sought to lease or loan two of the luxury jets to other agencies, including one offered to the FBI for Patel's use, the agency said in a letter to Senate Democrats.

The new Appropriations Committee release goes further, alleging DHS has acquired 12 planes total, including five new luxury jets, and has actually begun flying officials on them. That marks a shift from the earlier reporting, which focused almost entirely on planes sitting unused.

Who's to Blame

DHS and Noem are still pointing fingers at each other. When the Times asked DHS to explain the purchase, a spokesperson said the Daedalus contract "was made and approved by department leadership before Secretary Mullin was sworn in." A spokesperson for Noem disputed that, saying the jet purchase was finalized under Mullin, her successor. Notably, the contract's size reportedly grew by $303 million on the day Mullin took over, a detail neither side has fully explained.

Former acting ICE Director John Sandweg, who served under President Obama, told the Times that buying a private jet fleet wouldn't have made his top-ten list of things ICE needed to boost deportations. ICE has historically chartered planes from private companies or used military and Coast Guard aircraft for removal flights. That raises a question about why DHS needed to own planes at all rather than lease capacity as needed.

DHS has defended its flexibility on the matter, telling the Times the department "reserves the right to adjust course in an environment with evolving requirements and demands." That's a fair operational point: agencies do sometimes repurpose assets when original plans change. But it doesn't address why a no-bid contract went to a firm with a donor tied to the department's own former secretary, or why the contract ballooned by $303 million on the exact day leadership changed hands.

What's Actually in Dispute

The core allegation, that DHS is running a "private jet service" for political appointees, comes from Murray and Murphy, both Democrats, and has not been independently verified by DHS financial records or an inspector general report. It's an accusation, not an established fact. DHS has not yet responded publicly to the specific claim about Patel and Homan's flights.

At the same time, the underlying facts that aren't in dispute carry weight on their own: hundreds of millions spent, a no-bid contract, planes sitting idle for months due to staffing shortfalls, and a donor connection to a former Cabinet secretary. Whether the planes are grounded or now ferrying officials, taxpayers are footing a bill that, according to Sandweg, never needed to exist in the first place.

The DHS Inspector General's office has not confirmed whether it will open a formal review. Congress could also attach oversight conditions or funding restrictions to DHS's next appropriations bill, something Murray, as Appropriations Vice Chair, is positioned to push. Until either happens, the $464 million fleet and who's really flying on it remains a matter of dueling letters rather than public records.