No more free Mexico flights for illegal immigrants
Illegal immigrants prepare to enter a bus after being processed at Tucson Sector U.S. Border Patrol Headquarters Aug. 9, 2012, in Tucson, Ariz. / AP Photo
(AP) TUCSON, Ariz. - The U.S. government has halted flights home for Mexicans caught entering the country illegally in the deadly summer heat of Arizona's deserts, a money-saving move that ends a seven-year experiment that cost taxpayers nearly $100 million.
More than 125,000 passengers were flown deep into Mexico for free since 2004 in an effort that initially met with skepticism from Mexican government officials and migrants, but was gradually embraced as a way to help people back on their feet and save lives.
The Border Patrol hailed it as a way to discourage people from trying their luck again, and it appears to have kept many away — at least for a short time.
But with Border Patrol arrests at 40-year lows and fresh evidence suggesting more people may be heading south of the border than north, officials struggled to fill the planes and found the costs increasingly difficult to justify. Flights carrying up to 146 people were cut to once from twice daily last year.
And this summer, there haven't been any.
"Everything comes down to dollars and cents," said George Allen, assistant chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson sector. "We're running into a more budget-conscious society, especially with the government."
He added: "Does it fit within our budget and is there an alternative that is not as effective but still effective?"
In an effort to keep the flights going, American authorities proposed mixing in Mexicans who commit crimes while living in the U.S. The Mexican government balked at seating hardened criminals next to families, elderly and the frail who recently crossed the border in search of work.
"Right off the bat, I can tell you that Mexico was not going to allow, nor will it ever allow, that kind of repatriation, which puts families' safety at risk," said Juan Manuel Calderon, the Mexican consul in Tucson.
U.S. and Mexican negotiators also discussed changing the route from El Paso, Texas, where many Mexicans with criminal records are held, to the central Mexican state of Guanajuato. In the past, the route has been from Tucson to Mexico City.
The flights may resume but not this year, U.S. and Mexican officials say.
They have operated only in the summer and only in Arizona, designed as a humanitarian effort in response to the many migrants who have died over the last decade trekking through remote deserts in debilitating heat.
U.S. Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Mexico Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire said in February that they planned to launch a pilot program April 1 to fly migrants arrested while living in the United States deep into Mexico. The pilot program was partly a response to complaints from Mexican border cities that too many deportees were being dumped on their streets and contributing to crime and unemployment.
"We wanted to maximize the flight and we couldn't come to an agreement," said Allen. "They were close. It may happen next year, but by the time it drug on, we got through July and for a short period of time, it wouldn't have been realistic."
The Mexican Interior Repatriation Program flights carried 125,164 passengers at a cost of $90.6 million since 2004, or an average of $724 each, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The flights ran as few as 38 days in 2009 and as many as 120 days in 2010, when a record 23,384 passengers were flown. Last year, there were 8,893 passengers flown at a cost of $5 million — an average of $562 each.
The flights became a key piece of Border Patrol enforcement in Arizona as the agency moved to end its decades-old, revolving-door policy of taking migrants to the nearest border crossing to try again hours later.
The agency's new strategy, introduced in Tucson last year and later extended to the entire border, relies on tougher punishments that were rolled out in recent years. One calls for jail for up to six months and another one buses migrants to border cities hundreds of miles away to be deported there.
The one-way flights to Mexico City were aimed at first-time offenders and families. They were always voluntary and Allen said about 70 percent declined when they were introduced. But, as jail time and other punishments became more common, migrants increasingly jumped at the opportunity.
Without the flights, the Border Patrol is relying more on other punishments. It sends 70 people to federal court in downtown Tucson each weekday to face jail time. Deportation buses head east daily to Del Rio, Texas, and, when there are enough people to fill the seats, west to San Diego or Calexico, Calif.
Allen said Border Patrol data shows migrants who took the flights were less likely to be found again crossing the border illegally, though the agency has faced criticism for failing to release evidence of whether its tougher punishments are working.
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Hey amigo, I need to go back to mexico for christmas. all i need to do is get captured by the dummest agency in world and they will fly me back for free.... Only in America!
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Like in Cheech and Chong's UP IN SMOKE. The illegals couldn't afford to get back to Mexico for a family member's wedding, so they called INS to get a free trip back.
Eliminate the "anchor baby" exemptions by not instantly bestowing citizenship because some mamacita crawled across the border to whelp her get.
Remove any and all public assistance for illegals (there are enough citizens that need the help.)
Disallow sanctuary cities. If the federals can sue a state for trying to control immigration, why do they not go after the sanctuary cities? Are they not interfering with immigration laws as well? Isn't it aiding and abetting?
My guess is that none of them flew here. Seems to me a Greyhound bus would be a lot better than how they came.
And why on earth do we give a crap about Mexico whining about where deported illegals are returned? I don't see the crime rate in Mexican cities as being our problem.
Oh, we don't want to seat "criminals" next to illegals? Ummm, excuse me, but entering a country ILLEGALLY is a crime. They're ALL criminals.
No Constitutional "rights." (Those apply only to citizens and legal residents.) Only human rights. We won't starve them (serve simple box lunches on the bus), we won't put them in cattle cars with no water, or toilet facilities, etc. But no endless court hearings and deportation stays. If they can't prove they're here legally within 24 hours (which is all it takes to go home and get their green card and/or passport) then they're in a holding facility until there are enough of them to fill a bus, and then they're on their way out of here.
Second time they get caught, they get a 6 month jail sentence and then deported. If they're stupid enough to try it a third time, 5 years followed by deportation. No "time off for good behavior" or whatever.