Arizona StarNet: "Nearly 9,000 illegal border crossers took free flights home to Mexico City this summer in the eighth annual edition of a binational Mexican Interior Repatriation Program aimed at saving lives. The 8,893 people who participated are the fewest since the program was launched in 2004. At least 10,500 had participated each year, with a record 23,384 taking the flights in 2010, government figures show.
The decrease in participants this summer is likely attributable to a precipitous decline in Border Patrol apprehensions. Officials reduced the program this year to one flight a day, instead of two, because of that decrease. Under the voluntary program, non-criminal Mexican illegal immigrants caught by the Border Patrol in Arizona are offered free flights to Mexico City. From there, they are given bus passes to return to their hometowns.
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
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