Why do illegal aliens get a free ride home at US taxpayer expense?

Now Boarding: Illegal Immigrants On One-Way Tickets Home





(by Miriam Jordan, WSJ.com) KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- While U.S. airlines downsize and scrimp on amenities, one carrier is offering its passengers leather seats, ample legroom and free food. But frequent fliers probably don't want a ticket on what may be the fastest growing "airline" serving Central America.





This carrier is run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE], the federal agency responsible for finding and deporting undocumented immigrants. A crackdown on illegal immigration has led to a spike in deportations and the creation of a de facto airline to send the deportees home.





The air service, called Repatriate by air-traffic controllers, is known simply as ICE Air to agency employees. Its planes have headrests emblazoned with ICE's name and seal. In-flight service is polite.





"For a lot of these immigrants, it has been a long journey to the U.S.," said Michael J. Pitts, chief of flight operations for deportations and removals at ICE. "This is going to be the last impression they have of the United States. We want to provide good service."





Mr. Pitts, a former military pilot, said ICE Air operates much like a commercial carrier, flying passengers to hub cities where they connect to international flights. But those hub cities -- such as Mesa, Ariz., and Alexandria, La., which are close to illegal-immigrant detention sites -- are relatively obscure. And the final destinations are primarily in Latin America, including up to three flights daily to Guatemala City and two to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Mr. Pitts also recently launched service to the Philippines, Indonesia and Cambodia.





In all, the U.S. government deports people to more than 190 countries. Outside of Mexico, ICE flew home 76,102 illegal immigrants in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up from 72,187 last year and 50,222 two years ago.





ICE Air's patrons are what the airline industry calls "non-revenue passengers," since Washington foots the bill at $620 a person on average for the one-way flight home. The agency now flies 10 aircraft, twice as many as last year, including leased and government jets.





From Kansas City, Mr. Pitts' team coordinates with 24 ICE field offices and monitors all flights. On a recent morning, staffers tracked seven ICE Air flights to Central America on an electronic wall map. Three schedulers worked the phones and emailed frantically to place immigrants on future flights.





"We have 30 El Salvadoran aliens ready to be removed," an official at an Arizona detention facility said by phone. Patty Ridley checked her roster and confirmed the seats on a flight scheduled to leave Mesa, Ariz., for San Salvador two weeks later. Another scheduler, Dawnesa Williams, who previously worked as a corporate travel agent, coordinated the journey of an illegal immigrant from Bakersfield, Calif.





Like mainstream carriers, ICE knows it gets more bang for the buck if it can fill every seat, so it doesn't schedule any flight until it has a critical mass of deportees. "We are making a valiant attempt to overbook," said Mr. Pitts. Sometimes passengers get bumped, he said, "to make room for priority cases." Those might be convicted criminals who are wanted by their country or individuals eager to get home due to a family emergency.





http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/daily-news-article/now-boarding-illegal-immigrants-on-one-way-tickets-home/|||Saddly many of those who take advantage of this offer return home, vacaction, catch up with all the latest news and when their money starts running out , they return back to America.If it can be done once, it can be done twice.|||ROFLMFAO!!!! So do you want them gone or not? What? do you expect them to pick more of those fruits and vegtables you gladly put on your table to pay for their own way to?





MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!!!!|||Because we haven't decided to nut up and shoot them on sight yet.





Haha j/k





But to some extent you really can't always be the better person otherwise everyone takes advantage of you.|||Because illegal immigrants have no reasons to stay in US, the government sent them to their own country.|||So, what happens when they come back? Will they do this again? Just electrify the border fences so people can't climb them any more.|||Man they should do it like the turkey drops of arkansaw.|||Because if we made them walk, they might not leave.|||Well, that is the way things are now in the usa. I consider it absurd as well. Any suggestions ?|||So your well thought out point is that we should leave them here?|||OK, so we leave them here until they can come up with the money for their plane fare?|||I work for an airport(international) and this STORY is absurd. If this is true then why isn't this put public. Seems like this is HATER information!