ICE Air Returns Immigrants to Mexican Interior

The Washington Post reports that security has grown so dire in Mexican border towns that U.S. immigration authorities have begun flying some deportees to Mexico City, rather than releasing them into areas where they could be targeted by kidnappers and smuggling gangs.Still, the deportee flights from El Paso, Tex., to Mexico City aboard “ICE Air” — the agency’s name for its charters — represent the first time that U.S. authorities will send home Mexican returnees by air on a large-scale, sustained basis, following an initial trial run last fall.The twice-weekly flights operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carry only a small fraction of the nearly 300,000 Mexican nationals returned by the Obama administration each year. But flying deportees deep into Mexico could save lives by discouraging them from attempting another desperate illegal crossing, ICE officials say.As part of the arrangement with ICE, the Mexican government provides returning deportees with a bus ticket from the airport to anywhere in Mexico, as long as their destination is not a border state.On average, ICE Air operates 27 flights each week, mostly to Central America, and the cost per deportee is roughly $500, according to the agency, regardless of whether the passenger is bound for Mexico City, El Salvador or Honduras.

KJ