LUKE TURF

The U.S. Border Patrol will start later this month flying Mexicans caught sneaking into Arizona into Mexico's interior in an effort to get migrants out of the hands of smugglers and away from deadly desert heat.
The $13 million estimated cost will cover flights to Mexico City and Guadalajara and buses to take immigrants home from airports, said Homeland Security Department spokesman Bill Strassberger.

"The specific details for implementation are still being worked out," he said. "The reason it's being done is to try and reduce the dangers and encourage people not to cross the most dangerous areas."

Strassberger didn't know if commercial or charter flights will be used. He expects an exchange of letters of agreement between Mexico and the United States later this week, and the program should run through September, he said.

The countries must agree on the program's principles, Strassberger said.

It's a voluntary program, he said, and the United States must provide safe and humane treatment during returns. While the Joint Interior Repatriation Program is ongoing, Strassberger said, the United States may not engage in a lateral repatriation program like one in September.

In that program, Mexicans were flown to Texas and taken to Mexican border cities to get them away from smugglers. The program was deemed too controversial, Strassberger said, because Texas communities were upset with migrants being dumped in their back yard.

In that program, the United States spent about $1.2 million to send 6,300 immigrants caught in Arizona to border cities south of Texas, said Border Patrol spokesman Andy Adame.

Immigrants caught in Arizona are normally taken to the border here.

Those who don't want to be flown into Mexico will be dropped off at the line in Arizona, Strassberger said.

Activists on both sides of the immigration debate in Arizona are upset about the program.

Tombstone-based Civil Homeland Defense founder Chris Simcox, who organizes citizen patrols to catch people sneaking into the United States, said flying Mexicans home is a waste of money.

Simcox and Kat Rodriguez of the Tucson-based human rights group Derechos Humanos don't agree on much, but both blasted the government for wasting millions on the program.

"Why can't that money be used for more equipment and more personnel (on the border)?" Simcox asked. "We're paying to send a few people back home. I don't get it."

Rodriguez would rather see the money spent on a comprehensive legalization program to provide more avenues for workers to come legally and receive worker rights, return safely, obtain citizenship and reunify families.

"Once again we are going to spend money on not addressing the problem," Rodriguez said. "They left that hometown because they need to feed their families."