An American Air Force jet with migrants linked to their wrists and ankles left Texas for Guatemala on Thursday, transporting 80 deportees to another expulsion flight which reflects an increasing role for the armed forces to help apply Immigration laws.
The flight of Fort Bliss, an army base in El Paso, was to take about seven hours, almost twice as long as a direct route, because the military plane could not fly over Mexico, said the door -Man of the American border patrol Orlando Marrero. Eight children were on board.
“The message we have for these people is that if you cross the border illegally, we will expel you to your country of origin in a few hours,” said Marrero.
The Trump administration used military planes to expel people in Guatemala, Ecuador and Colombia, a gap in the previous practice of US Immigration and Customs, to use charter and commercial planes.
“There are countries that do not like military planes that enter their territory,” said American representative Henry Cuellar, a democrat who represents a border district of Texas. “This is something that must be developed on the country before, because you do not want to turn around in the air.”
On Sunday, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, refused two American military planes with migrants, which prompted Trump to announce 25% of prices on Colombian exports. Colombia fell And said that he would accept migrants but would fly them on Colombian military flights which, according to Petro, would guarantee them dignity.
The Pentagon started Deployment of troops in active service at the border last week, but it was not clear to what extent they will Break support roles They have played under the presidents from George W. Bush, including the surveillance of the soil and air, the construction of barriers and the repair of the vehicles.
A law of 1878 prohibited military participation in civil law enforcement, but Trump and his assistants reported that the president could invoke powers in wartime. Trump said that in his inauguration agenda declaring a border emergency that the Ministry of Defense could help detention and transport, two Huge cost drivers.
Trump ordered an American base on Thursday in Guantanamo bay, Cuba, Being used to hold migrants, saying that it could contain up to 30,000 people. This would almost double the current detention capacity of the ICE.
Yael Schacher, director of the Americas and Europe at Refugees International, said that the use of military aircraft for deportations was rare but “largely symbolic”.
