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 News from Around the Americas | June 2005 
Daily Flights for Illegal Immigrants Resume
 Arthur H. Rotstein - Associated Press
Tucson, Ariz. – A program to provide illegal immigrants caught crossing the Mexican border with free plane rides home through Mexico City will resume Friday for a second summer, said the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.
The so-called interior repatriation program is considered an important part of the Border Patrol's effort to disrupt illegal immigrant smuggling operations and better enable the agency to get control of the Arizona border, "our weakest area" along the 2,000-mile boundary with Mexico, said Commissioner Robert C. Bonner on Wednesday.
"Our goal is to control the border ... to attain and assert control over what is no question our weakest area," Bonner said in a teleconference call from Washington with reporters.
The Tucson sector, which has been the nation's busiest for illicit border crossings for several years, accounted for more than half of the 1.1 million apprehensions of illegal immigrants made last year by Border Patrol agents.
Normally, illegal immigrants from Mexico who are caught and who have no criminal record can be voluntarily returned, or repatriated, just across the border through a port of entry, such as Nogales or Douglas, Ariz. Many immediately make contact with the smuggling group they hired to arrange for another attempted crossing.
Bonner said the interior repatriation, which is voluntarily, is considered important in helping disrupt that contact.
"We know from experience that if you simply return them to Nogales, Mexico, you are returning them literally to the arms of the smuggling organizations and they will often return the next day ... through treacherous terrain that exposes these migrants to death in the desert," Bonner said.
Roughly 70 percent of the migrants arrested in Arizona come from south of Mexico City, he said, and repatriation flights allow the United States to return Mexican citizens closer to their hometowns, he said.
What's more, Bonner said, monitoring after last year's flights showed that many of those returned to the Mexican interior didn't come back, though the vast majority of people crossing the Mexican border have crossed repeatedly.
Plans negotiated with the Mexican government call for a total of 226 flights – two a day – from Tucson to Mexico City, with the goal of taking 33,900 illegal immigrants back to the Mexican interior. A total of 14,067 people were returned to Mexico City or Guadalajara on flights between July 12 and Sept. 30 last year.
"Working with the government of Mexico, we will reduce the number of people who are entering the United States illegally, particularly in treacherous areas, in what I call the season of death, and we will reduce deaths in the desert," Bonner said. "When you start thinking of saving human life, that alone justifies the expense that will occur."
A spokeswoman said 160 migrants have died along the entire southwestern border during the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, including 91 in Arizona. There have been 15 heat-related deaths in the Tucson sector, which covers most the Arizona border.
The project is expected to cost $14.2 million this year, a $1.2 million savings over last summer's operation, the spokeswoman said.
Top priority for the flights will be given to immigrants caught in Arizona's harsh western deserts and those deemed a health risk. All volunteers for the flights will be interviewed by Mexican consular officials.
For the first time, immigrants apprehended by Border Patrol agents in the Yuma sector, which covers the westernmost part of Arizona, also will be eligible for flights. They'll be bused to Tucson for the flights. |
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