Thread: Inside an I.C.E. Deportation Flight

Inside an I.C.E. Deportation Flight

Updated: Thursday, 23 Sep 2010, 12:15 PM MDT
Published : Thursday, 23 Sep 2010, 10:44 AM MDT

MESA - FOX 10 boards one of the many deportation flights that leave Mesa each week, headed south of the border, and we're showing you an inside look.

This flight is headed to the heart of central America, on its way to drop off hundreds of illegal immigrants back in their native country.

The hope is these immigrants will be so far from Arizona once they step off the plane that they'll never come back -- because the trip would be too much to undertake.

For illegal immigrants, it's a one-way ticket back home, but for taxpayers, is this a first-class ripoff?

ICE says it costs $1,000 to fly one person back to central America. With 130 passengers per plane, that's $130,000 per flight.

ICE flies one to three planes per day, five days per week. That averages out to 10 flights a week, which is 520 flights a year -- and nearly $68 million a year.

The ICE facility in Mesa is one of four deportation centers across the country with the same process. Total it up, that's $300 million per year. Money that comes out of the Homeland Security budget, and your tax dollars.

The question is, is this a colossal waste of money, or a necessary expense in the fight against illegal immigration?

To answer that question, today's guests are Neville Cramer, who worked for the Immigration and Naturalization Services for 25 years, and state lawmaker Jon Kavanagh, one of the architects of some of the toughest immigration laws in the state.

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