For illegal aliens, American hospitality just keeps coming.
Mexican citizens boarding this year's final flight at Tucson International Airport/submitted photo
A total of 23, 384 illegal aliens this year were flown home to Mexico’s interior – for free – rather than being unceremoniously and inhumanely deported to grungy border towns.
What a deal.
The free plane rides are part of the Mexican Interior Repatriation Program (MIRP), which made its finale flight from Tucson to Mexico City last week with 130 Mexican citizens on board, according to a news release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The release did not note if the passengers also received free blankets and peanuts.
The deal, a joint effort between the U.S. and Mexico started in 2004, is open to Mexican citizens who are nabbed crossing the Sonoran Arizona desert region or other areas of U.S. Border Patrol’s Yuma and Tucson Sectors.
Those apprehended go to the Department of Homeland Security facilities in the Arizona cities of Nogales and Yuma, where they have to be medically screened, meet with officials from the Mexican Consulate and, if they don’t have criminal backgrounds or other problems, offered the free ride home.
Program participants, of course, have to be volunteers. It would be atrocious to fly anyone home for free against his or her will.
One of the program’s goals is humanity.
“MIRP reflects our mutual commitment to strong and effective enforcement of both nations’ immigration laws, and this program is proof that we can do so in a humanitarian way,” the release quotes Katrina S. Kane, field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in Arizona. “This program prioritizes the humane treatment of detainees throughout the removal process.”
Running from June to September, the program aims to save lives by discouraging repeat border crossing, at least during the sizzling summer, as well as “combat organized crime linked to the smuggling, trafficking and exploitation of persons.”
If taken far into the bowels of Mexico, former border crossers may be less likely to be sucked back into the coyotes’ webs of lies and deceit. They are also more likely to find jobs, or at least a better quality of life than in the sodden border towns, which is the fate of many deported against their will.
More people than ever are volunteering for this juicy deal, the Arizona Republic reports, with this year’s volunteers double that of last year and larger than any other year’s annual total.
Mexican citizens returned home in 2010 consisted of 85 percent men and 15 percent as well as 963 juveniles – accompanied by their parents to be eligible.
The Mexican Interior Repatriation Program, run by ICE, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mexican Ministry of the Interior, sounds like quite a sweet deal – and it better be, based on its price tag.
ICE spokesman Vincent Picard told the Republic the cost of this year’s operation was nearly $15 million.
[tnipoll]
What do you think?
Is the Mexican Interior Repatriation Program a dandy program or a bunch of hooey?
$15 million – less than the cost of one F-16 jet plane.
hey leftfield,
in the grand scheme of comparisons, $15 million does seem like a mere plop in the bucket.
What airlines are used
hey joes,
couldn’t answer your question, but i can tell you upon close scrutiny of the plane pictured, it appears to have ‘Dione H’ written on the side in some fancy script.
When will they start using jumbo jets?
ha! but then they’d have to invest even more in the program, as lefty pointed out, a nice jet costs more than the annual cost of the entire program.
I want them to carry more.
Where do I sign up? I need a vacation.
Oh, Mexico
It sounds so sweet with the sun sinking low
Moon’s so bright like to light up the night
Make everything all right
James Taylor
good question, ericheithaus!
i was wondering the same thing…
I am wondering if they pay $25.00 for a checked bag? Just the modern flying experience is enough to put a chill down the spine that no one will want to come back.
Thats OK they left all their baggage in the desert near Douglas!!
hey! i was just responding with similar theory – hahahhahah.
Great minds think alike.
ha! good observation, alan in kent wa, on a plane trip deterring future travel…anywhere.
maybe the program would get even more participants if they offered free train fare.
and although the release did not note any details about checked bags, i’m guessing most of the bags may have ended up discarded somewhere in the desert….
The notions that criminals are “coddled” and that there are people out there who are having their every desire provided for by a government which is spending the tax monies collected from people working very hard in order to provide a life of relative ease for “lazy, non-productive” peoples is widely held amongst conservatives and rarely, if ever found amongst liberals. People who like to self-identify as ” independent” tend generally to have an overall conservative value system, while prefering at the same time to believe that their opinions and beliefs are not the result of slavish devotion to any ideology, but rather come about rationally after careful deliberation of the self-evident facts. Sometimes “independents” hold what are commonly called Libertarian ideals and believe these are separate and apart from run of the mill Republican-type conservative values, but libertarianism is really just a more extreme type of conservativism.
thanks for clearing that up, lefty! i was about to ask you that very question but you’ve answered it before i even put my fingertips to keyboard – ahhaha.
?…does this mean we can count on your contribution to keep the program ‘flying high’? 😉
Hmmm, let’s see now. 23,384 “illegal aliens” have been flown out in 6 years. What’s that, 11,976,616 to go? So we should have them out of here by when? 26th Century? Lettuce prices should do okay. Whew!
Of course, now, I wonder if about 23,384 more have come in during the past 6 years. Oh, well, at least we’re getting a handle on this.
I’m Irish. I’m in the U.S.A. I want to go home. Permanently. I can’t out the money together. I’m trying.
Why do the Mexicans get to go home free? Can Mexicans in the country legally go home free? Why are Mexicans privileged over those like myself.
Yes, I’m here legally. I don’t want to be. Who will help me?
Why are Mexicans privileged over those like myself.
That’s what I’m talking about – this myth, widely believed to be true amongst conservatives, that they are in fact the ones who have been put upon.
You could try your comedy hour at some local pub near your and see if your feeble attempt at humor will garner you enough to make this mythical trip!
I cant fly anywhere for free. Just another free bee for illegal immigrants. Way to reward illegal behavior. I say fly them back but make them pay the airfare.
Why don’t you just renounce your citizenship and become an undocumented person? Since you seem to believe that this is the road to happiness it seems like a good move for you.
It is quite amusing some want the illegals sent home but seem to live in some peyton place world where it will cost nothing, they just mysteriously disappear from their precieved all white utopian world! Classice right wing delusions of grandeur that if only no one was taxed, everything would run just fine, fire departments would some how mystically be able to function, schools would operate by magic, law enforcement would not be needed, criminals would “become right wing compassionate christians” magically! They used to in a bygone era have another name for these “low to no government types” they called them anarchists!
hahah.
Hey Rynski…are you sure the flights outta Mexico are not bringing little Mexican ghouls and goblins around Halloween? Sure seems to be a lot of ’em being ‘bussed’ into my neighborhood for the ‘good stuff’ at radmax’s place on this holiday… 🙂
hahahha! i’m not sure – but i can definitely send an e-mail to ICE and ask what happens to the plane on its return flight.
it does seem such a shame to leave it empty…..
you mean people who don’t even live there come to trick or treat? how absurd….