Thread: MIA deportation flights accelerate U.S. policy

MIA deportation flights accelerate U.S. policy
The federal government deports undocumented immigrants from Florida on weekly flights from MIA.


BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com

http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/330987.html

But the Mexicans entering the white aircraft with few fuselage markings were not regular passengers. Shackled and handcuffed, they were leaving aboard one of two weekly deportation flights from MIA.

This particular flight carried three times the average sent back to their home countries on any given day. Stepped-up immigration enforcement, promised by the Bush administration this summer after the collapse of an overhaul bill in Congress that would have eventually legalized millions of undocumented immigrants, is yielding more deportees.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement allowed The Miami Herald to witness the flight's departure on the eve of Tuesday's release of new figures showing a sharp increase in arrests of fugitives with final deportation orders. This particular plane carried 80 to 85 immigrants who had been convicted of unspecified crimes in state or federal courts. The rest were undocumented immigrants.

In the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, special agency teams arrested nearly double the number of fugitives from the previous year: 30,408 compared to 15,462. The past two years, 31,475 were deported nationwide.

But even at that accelerated rate, it would take about 20 years to deport the 595,000 fugitives that immigration officials estimate are still on the loose.

The agency's Miami field office, which covers Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, reported more fugitive arrests as well: 2,579 compared to 1,456 in fiscal year 2006. Of those arrested in the two years, 2,818 were deported.

TRACKING FUGITIVES

Barbara Gonzalez, a Miami spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, attributed the spike in arrests to an increase in the number of teams assigned to track down fugitives -- 75 from 52 -- and increased cooperation with local and state law enforcement.

''These statistics should put those in violation of law on notice,'' said Michael Rozos, Miami field office director for detention and removal. ``Those who blatantly violate our laws will be located, arrested and deported.''

Gonzalez said those deported Friday came from the Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade or the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach.

''ICE is carrying out the orders as mandated by law,'' Gonzalez said. ``Most have gone before an immigration judge and others have freely admitted or stipulated to being in the country illegally.''

The Boeing 737-400 the Mexicans boarded belongs to a little-known but busy fleet known as JPATS -- Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System.

BACK TO HOMELANDS

Managed by the U.S. Marshals Service, JPATS transports detainees from one prison to another and deportees from the United States to their homelands.

Friday's flight was bound for Harlingen, Texas, near the border crossing between Brownsville and the Mexican city of Matamoros.

Earlier in the day, the aircraft had delivered deportees to Guatemala City.

COMMERCIAL FLIGHTS

Deportation flights from Miami, said Gonzalez, typically carry deportees to the Mexican border, Guatemala and Honduras. Some deportees are also removed on commercial flights and from other parts of the country.

In all, Gonzalez said, an average of about 400 people are deported from Miami every month.

Friday's deportees were largely subdued as U.S. marshals frisked them just before climbing a staircase to the plane. A couple smiled or waved at the photographer.

But a young man in a blue T-shirt was more brazen. He looked directly at the photographer from the top of the stairs and defiantly promised: ``I'll be back in three days.''

Duplicate post.
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-92895-mia.html+miami