Illegal immigrants now account for more than half the passengers flown on the real 'Con Air', Justice Department auditors reported.

WASHINGTON - "Con Air" is becoming big business, thanks to illegal immigrants and criminal aliens.
And this is one flight you definitely want to miss.
Federal officials flew 95,876 incarcerated illegal immigrants and criminal aliens around the country in 2005, a 28 percent increase since 2000. Those foreign nationals now account for nearly half of all passengers flown on the highly guarded federal flights, a new audit found, and tougher border security efforts will boost numbers even higher.
Unfortunately, the auditors warn, the flights could outpace federal planning. Officials haven't been looking far enough into the future, leaving the program vulnerable to nasty surprises.
"[Officials} could be caught off-guard by changes in demand and customers," the Justice Department Office of Inspector General auditors caution in the new report.
Popularized as "Con Air" in a Hollywood movie of the same name, the prisoner flights are coordinated by the U.S. Marshals Service and carried a total of 181,948 prisoners in 2005.
The passenger shuttle among about 40 domestic and international cities, and they come in many different stripes.
Some are being extradited or transported to their new federal prison homes. Many illegal immigrants or criminal aliens are heading to deportation centers and then to their home countries.
Since 1995, the number of undocumented immigrants and criminal aliens flown under guard has grown 826 percent. Most are being returned Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.
"Now we're at 115,000 (prisoners transported), and counting this year," Homeland Security Secretary Micheal Chertoff told reporters at a briefing in August. "It will be a record year for us with the total number of movements."
Marshals Service officials said they can lease more planes and hire more guards as needed. The auditors are skeptical.
"Leasing additional planes on an emergency basis is not reactive," the auditors cautioned, "but is also more expensive compared to longer-term aircraft leases."
Marshal Service spokeswoman Nikki Credio said Monday that officials found the audit "helpful."
The Marshal Service owns three plnes and leases six more for the flights. Immigration authorities in 2005 had to charter planes or buy individual tickets to handle an additional 62,017 illegal immigrant and criminal alien passengers - at a cost of $63 million.

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