US begins flying home deported Mexicans
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Buy SPH photosSAN DIEGO (AP) - The United States (US) government began flying Mexican deportees home on Tuesday in a two-month experiment aimed at relieving Mexican border cities overwhelmed with people ordered to leave the United States, some of whom fall prey to criminal gangs.
The flights will run twice a week from El Paso in Texas, to Mexico City until Nov 29, at which time both governments will evaluate the results and decide whether to continue. The first flight left on Tuesday with 131 Mexicans aboard.
The flights are not voluntary, unlike a previous effort from 2004 to 2011 to deport Mexicans arrested by the Border Patrol during Arizona's deadly summer heat.
The US government will pay for the flights, and the Mexican government will pay to return people from Mexico City to their hometowns, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a news release.
