By Maria Ortiz
Nov 17, 2023, 00:17 AM EST
He Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has deported or returned more than 380,000 undocumented immigrants who had no legal basis to remain in the country since May 2023, the federal agency reported on Thursday.
The DHS explained that several flights left on Thursday from the US to India, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and Central American countries with deported immigrants and that the agency will continue, through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), working in coordination with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and facilitating multiple removal flights, as part of dozens of other routine ICE operations.
Among those expelled were single adults and families who had no legal basis to stay in the country.
The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), in charge of deportations, has multiplied the number of flights with deportees since last May, when Title 42 was no longer implemented, a measure that allowed the expulsion of undocumented immigrants for health reasons.
In those 7 months, ICE has deported more than 380,000 people, of which 60,000 were family units.
The figure quintuples the deportations carried out in all of 2022, when 72,177 immigrants were expelled to more than 150 countries around the world.
Among the 380,000 deportees are migrants sent directly to Venezuela and Cuba.
On October 18, the US resumed direct repatriations of Venezuelan citizens, after four years of suspension of that practice.
On October 26, Cuba received the seventh flight of migrants deported from the US since both countries agreed almost a year ago to reactivate the returns of migrants by air.
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