Posted on 09/27/2003 4:16:10 AM PDT by sarcasm
The controversial program that deports illegal border crossers caught in Arizona to Mexico via Texas will end Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security officials said.
The twice-daily flights carrying immigrants from Arizona to the Texas border are costing at least $28,000 each.
Since Sept. 8, the federal government has been flying illegal immigrants detained in Arizona to Texas border cities under a pilot program called the "Lateral Repatriation Project." The immigrants are then bused to border ports of entry where they cross back into Mexico.
As of Thursday, 4,100 immigrants had been returned to Mexico through the program, said Gloria Chavez, Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman.
Each day, 300 single adult illegal immigrants caught crossing from Mexico into Arizona are flown or bused to Texas.
Mario Villarreal, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, would not immediately say how much money had been budgeted for the program. That money has come from the Border Patrol operating budget, he said.
The federal government had originally planned
to fly the immigrants into Mexico, but the Mexican government refused to allow the flights into Mexican airspace.
The announcement of the end to the repatriation program comes one day after Mexican President Vicente Fox demanded that the United States end the effort.
U.S. officials say Fox's criticisms have nothing to do with halting the program, saying it was only a pilot program that was intended all along to end on Sept. 30.
"It was initially funded to last through the 30th," said Andy Adame, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson sector.
The program was intended to reduce the number of illegal entrants who succumb to heat and harsh conditions as they trek across Arizona's deserts. At least 137 illegal border crossers are known to have died in the Border Patrol's Tucson sector in the agency's fiscal year, which ends Tuesday.
The program also was to make it harder for illegal entrants to make a quick return trip and to target the people-smuggling operations in Sonora.
Fox, who has placed immigration issues at the top of his agenda relating to the United States, said his country had already told U.S. authorities through the "appropriate channels" that the program was unacceptable.
"We will continue to insist and demand that this ends and that different actions be used," Fox told reporters in New York, where he is attending the U.N. General Assembly meeting. "The respect for human rights, for the dignity of the Mexicans, is the highest priority for this government," he said.
Last week Mexico's secretary of foreign relations said the two countries need to agree on one repatriation plan.
The end of the current program has nothing to do with Mexico's demands, said Villarreal, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman.
Carlos Gonzalez, the Mexican consul in Nogales, Ariz., said that when the arrangements with his office were made a week before the program started, the Border Patrol's plan for each day called for 60 arrested illegal entrants to be deported through Texas from Nogales along with 200 from Douglas and 40 from Tucson.
The Border Patrol will evaluate the success of the lateral deportations before deciding whether they will become a permanent part of U.S. border strategy, said Villarreal. "At this point we're extremely encouraged by the results."
The Border Patrol has seen a decrease of 17 percent from an average of 1,100 apprehensions made every day in the agency's Tucson Sector, which covers all of the Arizona-Mexico border except the Yuma area.
President Fox also told reporters that immigration issues would be discussed with President Bush during a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum next month in Thailand.
The Mexican president wants a migration pact that improves the lot of 3 million to 5 million immigrants living illegally in the United States. The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks put bilateral immigration talks on a back burner.
In the year up to the end of September 2002, nearly 1.1 million illegal immigrants were deported from the United States, of whom 990,000 were Mexicans, according to statistics from the Department of Homeland Security.
Looks like co-President Fox may have ordered even bigger changes.
AmericanPatrol.com is reporting
"According to reliable sources, the Bush administration has decided to stop enforcing immigration laws. Border Patrol Agents have told American Patrol that Mexicans are sent back across the border only to cross the next day. Now, Other Than Mexicans (OTMs) are released inside the U.S. We reported that this policy was in place in Arizona. We have now learned that the same policy is being employed in Texas and probably all along the border."
The true solution is to send them by ship to a port in southern Mexico. If they paid to get into the US, they can pay to get back to their home in Mexico from the most remote place we can find. This will prevent a border crossing the next day.
I couldn't think of a more fitting way for Michael Eisner to make money than by supporting the War on Terror...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.