Trump administration sends 68 immigrants back to Honduras and Colombia on first self-deportation flight
The Trump administration has orchestrated the first repatriation flight of migrants it claims were part of a group of 68 voluntary deportations.
The migrants were sent back to Colombia and Honduras on Monday on the first self-deportation flight funded by the government.
Thirty-eight Hondurans, including 19 children, were sent to San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras after they were handed $1,000 debit cards from the U.S. government and the offer to apply for legal entry into the U.S. in the future.
President Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail to conduct 'mass deportations' during his second stint in the White House. Experts believe that the offer to self-deport won't encounter high demand and is only set to attract a small number of migrants already thinking about going back.
The offer to self-deport comes as the government has also conducted high-profile migrant detentions in the U.S. and as it has flown hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to a top-security prison facility in El Salvador.
Kevin Antonio Posadas, from the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, had lived in Houston for three years and had already thought about returning to Honduras when the Trump administration revealed its new self deportation offering.
'I wanted to see my family and my mom,' he said, noting how easy the process was.
'You just apply (through the CBP Home app) and in three days you've got it,' he added. The flight departed Houston early on Monday.
'It's good because you save the cost of the flight if you have the intention of leaving,' he said.
Posadas added that he hadn't been worried about deportation, and while he had enjoyed living in the U.S., he had been considering leaving for some time. He said he would eventually think about taking up the offer for those who choose to leave of their own volition to apply to enter the U.S. legally.
Announcing the Monday flight, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement that 'If you are here illegally, use the CBP Home App to take control of your departure and receive financial support to return home. If you don't, you will be subjected to fines, arrest, deportation, and will never be allowed to return.'
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that a further 26 migrants on the flight were being taken to Colombia.
Antonio Garcia, the Honduran deputy foreign minister, said the government would give the returning migrants $100 in cash and a $200 credit at a government-run store that sells basic goods. He added that four of the children arriving in Honduras on Monday had been born in the U.S.
Garcia met the arriving migrants at the airport and said they had told him that being undocumented in the U.S. had grown increasingly challenging, and that the situation was becoming more hostile. They were concerned about going to work.
Wilson Paz, the Honduran immigration director, said that fewer Hondurans have been sent back so far compared to last year, noting that 13,500 have been deported this year, compared to more than 15,000 by the same time the previous year.
'I don't think it will be thousands of people who apply for the program,' said Paz. 'Our responsibility is that they come in an orderly fashion, and we support them.'
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