The US government has spent more than $51 million over the past four summers flying nearly 64,000 illegal immigrants back to the Mexican interior after they were caught crossing the border.

The flights are aimed at reducing the chances of immigrants recrossing the border by flying them to Mexico City, rather than busing them back to the Mexican border where they are susceptible to smugglers awaiting them with offers to try again. Illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico can't take the flights.

But the Arizona Daily Star reported Sunday that critics say the program hasn't made a substantial difference in lessening smuggling or the number of deaths that occur as immigrants sneak across the border.

In the 362 days the voluntary flights were offered during 2004-2007, the bodies of 342 illegal immigrants were discovered along Arizona's stretch of the U.S-Mexico border --nearly one per day, southern Arizona medical examiners' records show.

The yearly totals recorded by the U.S. Border Patrol show that the number of border deaths each year since the program started in 2004 has been higher than in any of the previous years.

Taking just the number of bodies handled by the Pima County medical examiner, and comparing 2001-2003, before the repatriation program started, the number of bodies found hasn't decreased.

To read the entire story, go to: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/International_Business/Flights_of_immigrants_to_Mexico_cost_51_million/articleshow/3349341.cms.

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