As the movie trailers say, "Welcome to Con-Air," only this time, it´s real! Migrant workers along side felonious, vicious criminals are flying the skies to their receiving locations. ICE Con Air Jets fly aliens home
U.S. government runs an airline for inmates, illegal immigrants
By Tim Smith • CAPITAL BUREAU • August 17, 2008
U.S. government runs an airline for inmates, illegal immigrants
By Tim Smith • CAPITAL BUREAU • August 17, 2008
The only passengers on the sleek, white jets are prisoners or illegal immigrants going home. The airline -- run by the federal government -- is one of the ways illegal immigrants caught in South Carolina are returned to their homelands. With a push to deport more illegal immigrants, the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System airline, which Hollywood moviemakers made famous in the 1997 film "Con Air," expects to be busy for years to come. A record 276,912 illegals were removed from the United States in fiscal year 2007, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Officials estimate passengers aboard JPATS flights will swell to 267,000 this year, up from 162,000 in 2002.
"It's the most safe, cost-effective way to move inmates and illegal immigrants throughout the United States," said Dorothy Zinnert, chief of scheduling for JPATS. The airline was formed in 1995, a merger between the air and transport services of the U.S. Marshal's Service and ICE. It now ranks as one of the largest transporters of prisoners in the world, handling more than 1,000 flight requests each day. And it remains the only government operated, regularly scheduled airline in the nation, officials say.
In addition to flying thousands of illegal immigrants, the airline also moves federal inmates between prisons or courts and contracts with state and local law enforcement agencies to bring back prisoners or fugitives.
While Hollywood may have made the name Con Air famous, Zinnert said the label was around for years before that. "We're the real Con Air," she said.
"It's the most safe, cost-effective way to move inmates and illegal immigrants throughout the United States," said Dorothy Zinnert, chief of scheduling for JPATS. The airline was formed in 1995, a merger between the air and transport services of the U.S. Marshal's Service and ICE. It now ranks as one of the largest transporters of prisoners in the world, handling more than 1,000 flight requests each day. And it remains the only government operated, regularly scheduled airline in the nation, officials say.
In addition to flying thousands of illegal immigrants, the airline also moves federal inmates between prisons or courts and contracts with state and local law enforcement agencies to bring back prisoners or fugitives.
While Hollywood may have made the name Con Air famous, Zinnert said the label was around for years before that. "We're the real Con Air," she said.
The process:
. an illegal immigrant is granted a hearing and the process can take months or years.
. When an immigrant is ordered out of the country, ground transportation takes him to a detention center or contracted local facility near the airport where they will be picked up.
. JPATS operates its flights out of Oklahoma City, Okla., with hubs in Alexandria, La.; Mesa, Ariz.; Anchorage, Alaska; York, Pa.; and the Virgin Islands, officials said. It's planes, however, travel to airports throughout the country.
. The inmates or immigrants get on and off planes away from an airport's public terminals for greater security.
. Deportees wear civilian clothes and get to bring one checked bag home, weighing no more than 44 pounds.
. They are restrained while on the flight and escorted by security personnel
. JPATS operates its flights out of Oklahoma City, Okla., with hubs in Alexandria, La.; Mesa, Ariz.; Anchorage, Alaska; York, Pa.; and the Virgin Islands, officials said. It's planes, however, travel to airports throughout the country.
. The inmates or immigrants get on and off planes away from an airport's public terminals for greater security.
. Deportees wear civilian clothes and get to bring one checked bag home, weighing no more than 44 pounds.
. They are restrained while on the flight and escorted by security personnel
. The government provides the deportees with food while on board. (sandwich, cheese, crackers, water, fruit)
. Each deportee is escorted down the stairs once they arrive in their home country. Once off the plane, they are met by their nation's federal immigration officers.
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8 comments:
And your problem with this is, dee?
Many of the deportees themselves have criminal records. They get food, water and a free trip home. I don't see the problem either.
The worst part of this is the returnees are shackled and flown with felonious criminals.
There is another aspect that you should be aware of. I have a cousin who works in a detention center and she told me that the migrants are brought in and if they do not have $3000 (bail) which most dont, they are "detained" until their court date which may be months later due to schedule backlog. Then, even when the judge indicates deportation, they are held until there are sufficient number to warrant a "load." I always thought at that point they were waiting for a busload of migrants to fill up a bus. Now, it appears, they are waiting for sufficient numbers to fill up a plane.
In the long run, I think this is all a scam to line the pockets of the cronies who own the private prisons (with these long delays) and my guess is the contractors who support ConAir.
I also wonder what happens once they are received by the immigration dept of the receiving country. All very scary!
So what that they are shackled? That is to keep them from escaping! So what that they are flown right along with felonious criminals? If they are ALL shackled what the hell do you think is going to happen?
You can think the rest is a scam but money-wise it makes a lot of sense to make sure they have a whole plane full of ilegals before they fly them home.
Who cares what happens to them once they are in front of the immigration officials of their own country? They are citizens of that country so why should anything "scary" happen to them? It is their problem and they created it in the first place by coming here illegally. Why all this concern for "American" law violators? You did say you love this country didn't you?
Pat,
You´re inhumanity is appalling! Shame on you!
patriot said...
So what that they are shackled? ..
So what that they are flown right along with felonious criminals?
Who cares what happens to them.
There was nothing inhumane about my remarks. Prisoners are often shackled. Since they wait to have a whole plane full of lllegals before they deport them, what do you expect them to do, seperate them by the seriousness of their other offenses and fly them in seperate planes? What would be the purpose of that? You never answered any of the questions I presented as usual.
Why would you even pose the question that you wonder what happens to them once they are front of their own country's immigration officials and imply that it is "scary"? How is it scary?
No, shame on your for your usual melodramatics and your unwarranted, outgeous concerns for foreignes who have broken our laws rather standing up for your own country.
Pat,
Obviously people are risking their lives to leave the conditions they are leaving behind, especially those that cross the miles of desert with 100+ ocnditions.
Look at the Guatemalans. Look at those from Asian countries.
People look to America as the Land of the Free. They are looking for escape when they risk their lives to come here. They are looking for the American Dream. Putting them back in terrorists hands (in many cases) can sometimes lead to the end of their lives! Very, very sad!
I know why they are coming, dee. I also know why bank robbers rob banks. It is still against the law!
We have a refugee status for those who are escaping death in their countries. Mexicans are not escaping death in Mexico.
The American Dream is for the asking, not for the taking!
Land of the Free, doesn't mean free for everyone in the entire world without limits. If we allowed that we would no longer be the Land of the Free. It would be total chaos without controlled immigration.
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