Fewer illegal migrants flown to Mexico
Fewer illegal migrants flown to Mexico
by Daniel González - Oct. 26, 2009 12:00 AM
The United States government flew 10,560 illegal immigrants back to Mexico during a 36-day period this summer, under a program aimed at reducing migrant deaths and disrupting smuggling organizations in the Arizona desert.
The repatriation program, run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, this year averaged a record 293 people a day, but returned fewer overall than previous years.
Last year, the government flew 18,464 people, or about 264 a day, to Mexico City during the 70 days the program was run.
Homeland Security officials attributed the success of the voluntary program to cooperation with the Mexican government. Mexico does not help pay for the program, which this year cost $6 million, but the Mexican Consulate in Nogales provided personnel to help the Border Patrol interview illegal immigrants to identify volunteers for the program.
By dropping illegal immigrants off far from the border, the program is meant to discourage repeat crossings and prevent deaths in the Arizona desert.
The Mexican government said about 2,180, or 20 percent, of the illegal immigrants who volunteered for the program this year were women, and 814, or about 8 percent, were minors.
Once in Mexico City, migrants were given bus tickets to their home states.
The majority of immigrants flown back to Mexico this year were from the interior or southern states, including Chiapas, Mexico, Guerrero, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Puebla and Veracruz.
Migrant deaths in Arizona climbed significantly this fiscal year, with 191 counted through August in the Tucson sector, the busiest of the nine Border Patrol regions on the U.S.-Mexican border. There were 32 more deaths than during the same 11-month period the previous year.
September's numbers are not available.
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