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 News from Around the Americas | June 2005 
Rights Advocates: U.S. Plan Won't Work
 Wire services
| | A U.S. program that returns undocumented immigrants to their hometowns draws criticism. |
A plan to give illegal immigrants the option of being deported to their hometowns instead of dropping them at the border might slow the tide of Mexicans moving north but it won't halt border crossings, migrant rights advocates said Wednesday.
On Tuesday, U.S. and Mexican officials agreed to again take part in a program that will provide free flights home for some immigrants.
It allows illegal immigrants arrested in Arizona's Sonora desert region to volunteer to return home via a chartered airplane from Tucson, Arizona, to Mexico City or Guadalajara. The immigrants then would be returned by bus to their hometowns.
U.S. officials say deporting immigrants at the border just encourages them to cross again.
Illegal migrants caught outside of Arizona's Sonora desert will still be immediately deported to Mexican cities along the border.
The repatriation program, which is set to start June 6, aims to save the lives of migrants who might otherwise try to cross the Arizona desert during scorching summer months.
But some migrant rights advocates argue the program will do little to reduce the number of migrants trying to cross, and will only make their journey harder and more expensive.
"Their idea is to put them as far away from the border as possible because if they really wanted to save lives, they would come up with a way of having orderly and legal migration," said Arturo Solis, director of the Center for Border Studies and the Promotion of Human Rights in the border city of Reynosa.
Solis said many migrants might opt to take the flights because they don't understand they have a choice or simply to return home to work and save more money to make the journey north again.
"Those who are leaving everything behind to head to the border will continue trying," Solis said. "It will just make it more expensive for the migrants but this is not going to reduce illegal migration."
Francisco Loureiro, who runs a migrant shelter in Nogales, across from Nogales, Arizona, said he, too, doubts the program will reduce illegal immigration. But he said giving those migrants who have been exposed to the harshness of the desert the choice of flying home will help save some lives.
"We have migrants who have tried to cross through the desert up to five times and they are still here, waiting to try again," Loureiro said. "This is a good option because a lot of them don't realize they are risking their lives." |
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