AZ Immigrants Deported in Cali., Texas

Posted: Feb 24, 2010 08:00 PM CST

Updated: Feb 24, 2010 09:01 PM CST


By MaryAnn Martinez

Buses pull up to Tucson Border Patrol Sector Headquarters carrying illegal immigrants that have been caught at points along Southern Arizona.

The immigrants will stay in a detention center until the Border Patrol decides what to do with them. Some will face an immigration judge and be jailed, part of the government's Operation Streamline. Others will be deported to Mexico. Before they go back, they'll make a journey many say is a waste of time and money.

Some immigrants will make it all the way to California or Texas, where they'll be deported.

"The reason we use the (Alien Transfer Exit Program or ATEP) is to disrupt the smuggling cycle," says Border Patrol spokesman David Jimarez.

ATEP isn't new. It started in May 2008. In the first year of the program, more than 5,800 immigrants caught in Tucson Border Patrol Sector were deported through California, in San Diego and Caliexco.

In November, Border Patrol stepped up enforcement of the program, adding another deportation route through Presidio, Texas. The number of people who were being deported through ATEP also increased, from 74 to 188 a day.

"By removing them through a different area, they're no longer in contact with that smuggler," says Jimarez. "They'll go home."

Cecile Lumer doesn't buy it. She's the head of the Naco Migrant Center, in Naco, Sonora. About a ten-minute drive south of Bisbee, the center is the first thing a deported immigrant sees when they're back on Mexican soil.

"It doesn't stop (immigrants) from coming back," she says. "The reason why I know what I know is because they came back here."

In November, when deportations picked up, Lumer saw few immigrants at the center. Now, they're back, telling her about the deportations out of California and Texas. Lumer showed us paperwork from interviews immigrants give at the center. One document maps an immigrants trail. It starts in Wilcox, where he was caught. Then he was sent to Tucson, Casa Grande, Yuma and finally, deportation in Mexicali in California.

We asked the Border Patrol what proof it has these deportations are effective.

"What we're looking at is actually a huge decrease in (immigrants) that we've been apprehending," says Jimarez.

He points to the number of illegal immigrants Border Patrol has taken into custody this year in the Tucson area. In 2008, 375,000 immigrants were caught. By contrast, 241,000 were apprehended in 2009. Lumer believes other factors, like the economy, could be responsible for the drop. She also doesn't believe the cost of the program justifies the results.

We did some digging to get answers on the cost of ATEP deportations. David Hoffman, the Border Patrol's chief for the Southwest border operations division told us the cost of deportations comes out of the Border Patrol's transportation budget. The amount is set every quarter according the operational needs of each Border Patrol sector.

"The contract cost for the fleet (of buses) and labor is billed to the government as a fixed price," Hoffman says. "That's why it's difficult for us to calculate."

We pressed him about whether a longer trip, one involving more miles to drive and more days to house an immigrant, would be more expensive.

"We still have a certain amount of man hours that we have to pay for, whether they travel from Tucson to Nogales or Tucson to the California state line," Hoffman continued. "Yes, there's going to be a mileage cost, but the cost to government is going to remain the same."

Even without a dollar figure, the Border Patrol's explanation isn't good enough for Lumer.

"I think it's a lot of our tax money going no where," she says.


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