Free Republic

<p>PHOENIX — Immigration authorities are flying illegal immigrants deep into their native Mexico from Southern Arizona to discourage dangerous crossings in triple-digit desert heat. The twice-daily flights from Tucson to Mexico City are intended to keep immigrants away from border towns where they would likely run into smugglers who want to sneak them back into the U.S...The U.S. Department of Homeland Security flights began Saturday for the sixth straight summer and will end Sept. 28. Tucson is the only spot in this country where the flights depart. Arizona is the busiest illegal entry point into the U.S.</p>

Entrants sent far from border to stem re-entry STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS For the second year, illegal entrants captured in Arizona will be offered a free plane ride home, U.S. and Mexican officials said Tuesday. Uner the program, dubbed the Interior Repatriation Program, the Department of Homeland Security paid $15.4 million last summer to fly captured illegal entrants back to Mexico's interior to discourage them from trying to cross the border again after being deported. The goal is to prevent an immediate return to the border for another illegal and potentially lethal crossing. So few illegal entrants used the service...

Flight Plans? DHS May Resume Airlifting Mexican Illegals Back Home By Zack Phillips, CQ Staff The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is thinking about resuming a program to transport illegal aliens back to their hometowns in Mexico, rather than the present practice of expelling them at the Arizona border. The main clue that it might renew a program that was tried out last year was an unheralded notice from the department’s Bureau of Customs and Border Protection that it is looking for a firm to provide charter flights from Tucson to Mexico, posted online April 6. Queried about the initiative,...