Repatriation program flies illegal immigrants home

Posted: Jul 11, 2011 6:26 PM

Mexican nationals sent home

TUCSON - For the eighth consecutive summer U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is flying illegal immigrants who are caught in Arizona's desert home to Mexico.

This summer's first flight left Tucson International Airport on Monday afternoon.

Typically illegal immigrants from Mexico are deported just across the border.

Officials hope flying them inland to Mexico City will discourage them from crossing again. And they hope that will save lives during the summer. But others call the program a waste of money.

The program hopes to fly 126 illegal immigrants a day to Mexico City, where the immigrants receive bus tickets to their home towns.

Tom Homan, Deputy Executive Assistant Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says, "We do this between the months of June and September because that's the hottest months of the year. And that's when most of them perish in the desert area."

Since 2004, Immigration and Customs flew about 102,000 illegal immigrants home to Mexico at a cost of roughly $85 million or $840 per person.

Homan says, "Our data shows that we have 90 to 96 percent success rate, which means these people aren't back in the mix for many, many months, if at all."

Homan believes in the long run the program actually saves taxpayers' money.

He says, "That's less aliens re-crossing the border, which saves resources for the Border Patrol."

Kat Rodriguez, who works for the illegal immigrant advocacy group Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, does not believe the program saves lives. She says, "It's a waste of money because it's not addressing the real reason people are coming."

Rodriguez says, "When a human rights organization was interviewing people coming off those planes, 8 out of 10 were saying they intended to cross again at some point in the near future."

Immigration and Customs officials expect this summer's program to cost between $9 and 11 million.

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