Login or register
Flying deportees home is costly endeavor
| Los Angeles Times
Posted: Saturday, March 08, 2008
- 3/8/08
Story Tools
Font Size:
Flying deportees home is costly endeavor Facebook
Get FREE Daily Headlines by email!

advertisement
Many of the immigrants around deportee Henry Fuentes had never flown before. They looked out the windows anxiously, fumbled to get their seat belts fastened and gasped any time the plane hit turbulence. A few received Dramamine to quell their motion sickness.

Although there are regularly scheduled Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights every weekday to Central America, the U.S. government also has flown immigrants home to Nigeria, Cuba, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines. Tens of thousands of Mexicans are flown to the border and then walk back into their country.

The deportation flights' cost jumped from $96 million in the 2007 fiscal year to $135 million this fiscal year. That works out to slightly more than $600 per deportee.

Because detaining an immigrant costs nearly $100 a day, Michael Pitts, chief of the flight operations unit for the ICE, said, "it's more effective for us to expeditiously get them out of the country."


You must login to make comments.
Click on the link below to register for a free account. This is a new system and previous accounts are not transferred to this system. You'll be asked for your name and e-mail address. A confirmation e-mail with a password will be sent to you at the address you provide. Once you've logged into the system, you'll be able to view and contribute comments. Please be respectful to your fellow users and post under your own name. Send questions to webeditor@sfnewmexican.com

Email:
Password:
Remember me
Register here for a free username and password

Comments (0)
What do you think? Add your two cents to the conversation by contributing your view on the news. Please, be respectful to the community and your fellow users and use your real name when posting. Inappropriate postings will be removed and your privileges to comment further might be suspended. If you'd prefer to submit a letter to the editor for possible inclusion in The New Mexican's print edition, visit our submissions page.


(not you? logout)



advertisement
  • JB Yelsky commented on
  • Ambro A commented on
  • P Orlando Baca commented on
  • Truett Collins commented on
  • Ambro A commented on
  • Joe McNabb commented on
  • Ambro A commented on
  • Doreen Saiz-Adler commented on