A record 23,384 illegal Mexican immigrants voluntarily accepted flights back to their homeland from Arizona this summer under a repatriation program created by the United States and Mexico.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that the number of volunteers in 2010 was more than double the previous year and easily surpassed every annual total since the Mexican Interior Repatriation Program started in 2004.
The program varies in duration each year, ICE spokesman Vincent Picard said.
Repatriation flights were offered for nearly four months this summer compared with 36 days last year.
A joint operation of ICE, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mexican Ministry of the Interior, the program was created to reduce the number of deaths among illegal border crossers and to combat human smuggling.
Captured immigrants in southern Arizona are returned to their homes deep in Mexico instead of being dropped at border towns where they might repeat efforts to unlawfully enter the United States.
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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/10/01/20101001illegal-immigrants-return-to-mexico-repatriation-flights.html#ixzz118C2c5zZ