US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA826

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TEGUCIGALPA 000826 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FROM CHARGE PIERCE TO DHS/ICE A/S MICHAEL GARCIA 
STATE FOR S/CT, PRM, G/TIP, DRL/PHD, AND DRL/IL 
STATE FOR WHA/PPC, WHA/CEN, INL/LP, DS, AND CA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SMIG, KJUS, PTER, PHUM, SNAR, PINS, PGOV, PREL, HO 
SUBJECT:  Stop Illegal Aliens Before They Reach The 
Homeland: Fund Latin American Repatriations of Third Country 
Nationals 
 
 
1. This is an action request.  Please see para. 13. 
 
2. Summary: Post believes reinstating funding for the U.S. 
Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Program for the Return of Third 
Country National (TCN) Migrants Intercepted in the Latin 
America & Caribbean Region (Project 057) is critical to U.S. 
homeland security goals.  It would demonstrate that the U.S. 
is a responsive and credible partner in the regional effort 
against alien smuggling and terrorism.  It would also have 
the added benefit of muting a growing chorus of Central 
American concerns that the U.S. is not assisting its 
regional allies in our combined efforts against alien 
smuggling, trafficking in persons, special interest aliens, 
and potential terrorist infiltration routes through the 
region.  Funding for Project 057 expired at the end of FY04. 
DHS/ICE cited budget constraints and questioned the value of 
the program.  While Post was not involved in any evaluation 
of the program, we believe the decision to end this program 
needs to be re-evaluated due to its demonstrable negative 
impact on our regional allies' ability to assist us in an 
area of growing importance to the global war on terrorism in 
the Western Hemisphere.  End Summary. 
 
Why Project 057 Advances U.S. National Interests 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
3. By applying U.S. resources to our regional allies' 
efforts to fight a common problem, Project 057 strengthened 
collaboration against alien smugglers and traffickers 
throughout the Western Hemisphere.  Repatriation costs of 
intercepted TCNs en route to the United States represent a 
daunting and very significant financial challenge to 
resource-strapped host country migration services.  Such 
costs act as a disincentive to vigorous interdiction actions 
against smuggling/trafficking operations and document 
falsification organizations.  Without resources, local 
immigration services resort to less effective control 
measures, such as dumping TCNs at the nearest border, which 
fail to address the problem of illegal migration and 
trafficking in persons, and often place the welfare of 
migrants in peril. 
 
4. Without U.S. funding, our migration law enforcement 
counterparts point out that the U.S. is, in effect, cost- 
shifting an unfunded mandate to impoverished immigration 
services.  These under-funded migration law enforcement 
services already cannot effectively do what is needed to 
disrupt international criminal smuggling organizations. 
Project 057 demonstrated to our regional partners that the 
U.S. understood (1) that alien smuggling is big business and 
(2) that corruption is rife within local immigration 
services.  Project 057 was a tangible sign of U.S. support 
to honest migration law enforcement officials' efforts to 
overcome a culture of indifference and corruption.  Without 
Project 057, the organized criminal syndicates will outbid 
underfunded (our interlocutors would say "unfunded") law 
enforcement interdiction efforts every time. 
 
How Project 057 Works 
--------------------- 
 
5. Project 057 is designed to: 
-- Deter and disrupt alien smuggling/trafficking and illegal 
migration activity in the Western Hemisphere by providing 
support to governments in the region that are seriously 
combating alien smuggling/trafficking and transmigration of 
undocumented or fraudulently documented migrants through 
their national territories; 
-- Reduce the risk of abuse or other violations of the basic 
rights of the migrant by traffickers/smugglers through a 
timely return of the intercepted migrant to his/her country 
of origin or last habitual residence; 
-- Strengthen host country cooperation with the U.S. in 
detecting and dismantling alien smuggling/trafficking 
organizations by disrupting these operations (including the 
activities of traffickers and smugglers, fraudulent document 
lithographers and vendors) and by prosecuting principals in 
the U.S. or outside the U.S.; 
-- Avoid expensive incarceration and legal costs for the 
U.S. when trafficked/smuggled migrants are detected and 
apprehended at our borders or in the interior of the United 
States; and 
-- Prevent potential criminal activity and the associated 
costs of that criminal activity inside the United States. 
 
So What? Why Bother? 
-------------------- 
 
6. Project 057 resources facilitate acquisition of 
intelligence information regarding alien smuggling 
organizations and traffickers that can be extremely valuable 
to anti-alien smuggling/trafficking initiatives, especially 
those efforts related to gathering information about special 
interest aliens, outside and within the U.S.  Several known 
alien smugglers have been identified in joint U.S.-Central 
American investigations, leading to the disruption of 
significant illegal alien smuggling networks.  Such 
information acquisition and cooperation should be the 
foundation of U.S. efforts to prevent possible infiltration 
of the homeland by terrorist organizations seeking to move 
their members into the U.S through these networks. 
 
7. By assisting transit countries in returning interdicted 
TCNs, Project 057 funds work to reduce the attractiveness of 
those countries to traffickers/smugglers and migrants as 
transit or staging venues.  Project 057 funds reduce the 
risk of dangerous "border dumping," (the practice of cross- 
border return of extra-regional migrants).  TCNs border- 
dumped in Central America have suffered only a minor 
inconvenience in their northward journey and are highly 
likely to continue their illegal journey to the U.S. 
 
8.  Project 057 funds allow resource-starved host country 
migration services to devote available budgets to other 
enforcement goals, such as investigations of special 
interest alien smuggling networks/routes, rather than to the 
administrative cost of transporting illegal aliens.  In our 
Country Team's unanimous opinion, Project 057 is a powerful 
tool for enforcement, deterrence, and cooperation that 
demonstrates tangible U.S. support to our allies in this 
war.  There also are additional compelling budgetary reasons 
to reinstate Project 057. 
 
Saving Taxpayers Money 
---------------------- 
 
9. Interdictions of trafficked/smuggled migrants and other 
intending illegal migrants outside the U.S. significantly 
reduces budgetary costs to the U.S.  The specific travel 
costs to return removable migrants from the U.S. or a 
country in the region are essentially the same, 
notwithstanding occasionally higher airfares resulting from 
the requirement for indirect routings avoiding U.S. 
territory when returning a TCN from another Latin American 
country.  Even in the absence of accepted estimates of the 
actual costs to DHS/ICE of apprehending, detaining, and 
removing TCNs once in the U.S., it is still possible to 
estimate the potential budgetary savings that Project 057 
can make to U.S. interdiction operations.  Using DHS/ICE's 
own estimated cost figures from the 1990s and not accounting 
for inflation, Post believes that total processing costs 
(apprehension, detention, litigation, and return costs) 
conservatively approach approximately USD 30,000 per alien. 
According to available Project 057 data, from FY91 through 
FY97 Project 057 expended about USD 2 million.  Based on 
this data, Post estimates that the return for each USD 1 
invested in the program is between USD 12 and USD 18.  This 
financial windfall is a compelling fiduciary reason to renew 
the program and save U.S. taxpayers significant outlays. 
 
Background on Project 057 
------------------------- 
 
10. The Third Country National Return Program (Project 057) 
began operations at Embassy Mexico City in April 1991.  This 
program evolved from Binational Commission Working Group 
discussions in 1990.  Former U.S. INS Commissioner Gene 
McNary responded favorably to a request from Mexican 
Undersecretary of Government, Miguel Limon Rojas, for 
financial assistance in sustaining the Government of 
Mexico's (GOM) enforcement efforts against TCN migrants and 
traffickers/smugglers.  These individuals used Mexican 
territory for illegal entry to the United States.  In 
February 1991, the Senate and House Appropriations Committee 
authorized the reprogramming of USD 350,000 from USINS 
detention and deportation funds to permit financial support 
of select repatriations from Mexico during FY91. 
 
11. Project 057 received strong support from the 
Appropriations Committees and from INS Headquarters each 
year, except for an interruption in funding for FY94.  In 
FY97, Project 057 was expanded to support other cooperating 
governments in the Western Hemisphere.  Numerous other 
procedural and policy changes have occurred over the years 
including: 
-- Authorization to use Project 057 resources to repatriate 
nationals of the Peoples Republic of China, 
-- Authorization to fund escort officers of the cooperating 
country migration and police services, and 
-- The requirement for collection of more detailed 
information on each migrant detained for repatriation 
support. 
 
12. Funding for Project 057 ended at the end of FY04. 
DHS/ICE's rationale was apparently budget constraints and 
questions about the value of the program. 
 
A Call to Reinstate Funding for Project 057 
------------------------------------------- 
 
13. COMMENT AND ACTION REQUEST: Post strongly urges DHS/ICE 
reconsider its decision against funding Project 057 and to 
reinstate funding as soon as possible.  Post believes 
Project 057 is a cost-effective program that directly 
advances U.S. homeland security priorities by disrupting the 
alien smuggling operations of international criminal 
syndicates.  This program makes it harder for undocumented 
TCNs to reach the U.S. illegally and disrupts potential 
terrorists infiltration routes to the U.S. through the 
region.  In addition, it also demonstrates that the U.S. is 
a responsive partner that shares Latin American concerns 
about joint efforts to combat alien smuggling and 
trafficking in persons.  Absent funding for Project 057, 
TCNs, including special interest aliens, have an easier time 
reaching the U.S. illegally.  Finally, our regional partners 
point out that the U.S. is, in effect, cost-shifting an 
unfunded mandate to their impoverished immigration services 
to repatriate these U.S.-bound interdicted illegal aliens. 
Restarting Project 057 will help address all these issues 
and is a cost-effective way to make our homeland more 
secure.  END COMMENT AND ACTION REQUEST. 
 
Pierce