"This type of collaborative effort to protect migrants and limit recruitment for organized crime is an important tool," said Christopher Wilson, an associate at the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
Los Angeles Times, 10/2/2012
A U.S. pilot program designed to deport illegal immigrants by flying them to Mexico City will operate for only two months this year and involve 20 flights, a significant scaling-back of what was billed as a humanitarian effort to avoid deporting people to violent border regions.
The first flight, which carried 131 immigrants, landed Tuesday in Mexico City, six months after the originally scheduled start date of the program. Slated to run from April through November, the Interior Repatriation Initiative will operate only this month and next.
"This type of collaborative effort to protect migrants and limit recruitment for organized crime is an important tool," said Christopher Wilson, an associate at the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. "This is an effective way to deal with this humanitarian crisis, in which migrants are dumped in parts of northern Mexico that are not all safe."
The Mexico Institute seeks to improve understanding, communication, and cooperation between Mexico and the United States by promoting original research, encouraging public discussion, and proposing policy options for enhancing the bilateral relationship. A binational Advisory Board, chaired by Luis Téllez and Earl Anthony Wayne, oversees the work of the Mexico Institute. Read more
