ICE: Repatriation flights will continue after Title 42 ends

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A federal agency says it will continue to repatriate ineligible migrants after Title 42 ends on May 11.

The air operations branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) schedules an average of 66 repatriation flights a week to the Northern Triangle of Central America and selected countries in South America and the Caribbean, an ICE official told Border Report.

Two such charter flights departed El Paso International Airport bound for Guatemala City and San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on Wednesday morning. More than 100 shackled migrants got off white buses and were escorted up some stairs to each of the chartered airplanes. The migrants would receive a “sack lunch” and medical care as needed during the four-hour flights.

“These detainees are coming from CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) custody. They were recently encountered and have not spent much time in detention,” the Washington, D.C.-based ICE official said on condition that he not be named. “ICE/ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) has done removal flights for many years. We will continue to have them after Title 42 goes away.”