On April 8, 123 immigrants from the Philippines and Indonesia were deported on a plane contracted under special charter with the ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Flight Operations Unit. The plane took off from Yuma, Arizona on April 8; the deportees arrived in Pampanga, Philippines and Jakarta, Indonesia on April 10. The deportees included 98 males and 25 females, according to ICE. Of the total 123 deportees, 43 had criminal convictions.

The flight was escorted by ICE DRO officers, Division of Immigration Health Services staff and consular officials from Indonesia and the Philippines. It was the first deportation charter flight to the Philippines for fiscal year 2008 and the first deportation charter flight ever for Indonesia. The ICE attache in Singapore and the Department of State Regional Security Office in Jakarta coordinated with the Indonesian government to repatriate the deportees. ICE operates 13 to15 special air charter missions every year; other destinations for these flights include Brazil, Eastern Europe, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Cambodia and the Middle East. (ICE news release, April 10)

From Immigration News Briefs, April 20

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