Unless you followed the Syrian Civil War closely, or possibly have a special interest in Byzantine architecture, Qalb Loze is not a town you will have heard of. Tucked away in the northwest corner of Syria, near the border with Turkey, its population is only around 1,200. Most of the residents are followers of the Druze religion, olive and tobacco farmers whose crops fuel the local cigarette industry. They go to work every day in the shadow of an ancient Christian basilica, constructed around the year 470; not being Christians themselves, they haven’t had much use for it, although somebody tried using it as a sheep stable once. When the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011, Qalb Loze stayed carefully neutral. But that didn’t save them when Ahmed al-Sharaa’s jihadists came to town.
The Trump administration is planning on building a fleet of government-owned planes specifically to perform 24-7, short-notice deportations as part of its all-out effort to make Trump’s delusions of one million deportations per year a reality.The Department of Homeland Security is currently looking for a private company to operate a fleet of at least nine large jets both at home and abroad, providing the DHS with pilots, nurses, and security, Bloomberg reports. In addition to last-minute deportations, the planes will also carry the upper echelon of the administration’s staff on diplomatic trips. Although the government has yet to disclose how much its 24-7 fleet would cost, it spent about $140 million on six Boeing deportation jets last year. And the Federal Aviation Administration has recently noted that multiple jets from Avelo—an aircraft company that has already worked closely with DHS—are now owned by DHS.The MAGA-verse generally celebrated the news. Owning its own fleet would make it easier for the government to carry out deportations, perhaps the key tenet of the administration’s agenda. Yet the administration is still no closer to reaching its unrealistic goal of one million deportations per year. DHS estimates that a contract would begin in summer of 2027 and continue through 2032.
Supporters are drafting a policy demand letter that Maine’s next nominee must publicly commit to if they want support from the largest organizing network in state history.