A U.S. Air Force jet with 80 migrants that left Texas for Guatemala on Thursday charted a path around Mexico because it couldn’t fly over the country, according to a U.S. official. The Mexican government said it never denied permission.
The flight from Fort Bliss, an Army base in El Paso, was scheduled to take about seven hours, nearly twice as long as a direct route, because the military plane could not fly over Mexico, said U.S. Border Patrol spokesperson Orlando Marrero. Eight children were aboard.
Mexico’s interior secretary said in a brief statement Thursday night that the U.S. government never asked permission to send the flight and that it has no ban.
The flight, with migrants bound at their wrists and ankles, reflects a growing role for the U.S. armed forces in helping enforce immigration laws.
“The message that we have for those people is that if you cross the border illegally, we are going to deport you to your country of origin in a matter of hours,” Marrero said
The Trump administration has used military aircraft to deport people to Guatemala, Ecuador and Colombia, a departure from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s previous practice to employ charter and commercial planes.
“There are some countries that don’t like military planes coming into their territory,” said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat who represents a Texas border district. “It’s something that logistically has to be worked out with the country before, because you don’t want to have a plane turned around in midair.”
On Sunday, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro refused two U.S. military planes with migrants, prompting Trump to announce 25% tariffs on Colombian exports. Colombia backed off and said it would accept the migrants but fly them on Colombian military flights that Petro said would guarantee them dignity.
The Pentagon began deploying active-duty troops to the border last week but it was unclear to what extent they will break from supporting roles they have played under presidents since George W. Bush, including ground and aerial surveillance, building barriers and repairing vehicles.
An 1878 law prohibits military involvement in civilian law enforcement, but Trump and his aides have signaled the president may invoke wartime powers. Trump said in his Inauguration Day order declaring a border emergency that the Defense Department may assist with detention and transportation, two enormous cost drivers.
Trump on Thursday ordered that a U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be used to detain migrants, saying it could hold up to 30,000 people. That would nearly double ICE’s current detention capacity.
Yael Schacher, director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International, said using military aircraft for deportations was uncommon but “largely symbolic.”
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Associated Press journalist Luis Torres in El Paso, Texas, contributed to this report.