Immigration Crackdown: Deportees bused afar

A good, detailed look, by a Tucson, Arizona newspaper, at a growing Border Patrol deportation program, the Alien Transfer Exit Program. The reporter also looks at another program, called "Operation Streamline," that brings a criminal conviction and possible jail time to all illegal border crossers caught in a designated zone. This program used to be used only for repeat crossers and those with criminal records.

Arizona Daily Star: Started in 2008, the Border Patrol program of busing Mexican illegal immigrants caught in Arizona to other border states - officially called the Alien Transfer Exit Program - has increased in importance in the past two years as the agency works to stop the revolving door that defined illegal immigration for the greater part of the 2000s.

... Humanitarian groups say the confusion caused by deporting someone to an unfamiliar part of the border puts illegal crossers at greater risk of falling prey to criminals in Mexican border towns. And immigration analysts say illegal immigrants determined to return to the United States ... won't be swayed by being dropped off in another state.

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