Inside ICE: Volume 2, Issue 21

ICE, Honduras Announce Program To Speed Deportations

Houston, Texas—ICE and the government of Honduras have agreed to conduct the first Video Teleconferencing (VTC) pilot program to expedite the interviews and removal of Honduran immigration detainees.

The pilot program will enable Honduran consular offices to interview detainees via video teleconference, rather than through in-person interviews, to confirm their nationality. Confirmation of nationality is required to obtain travel documents and complete the deportation of these detainees. VTC will allow consular offices to conduct detainee interviews more frequently, allowing ICE to complete deportations more quickly.

“The VTC is a great example of the innovative approach ICE is taking to immigration enforcement,” said Marc J. Moore, ICE San Antonio field office director. “Consular officers are able to quickly reach out to Honduran citizens in our custody, while ICE is able to save money by reducing the amount of time detainees stay in detention and completing the deportation more rapidly.”

Norman Garcia, the Honduran Ambassador to the United States, said about the new pilot that, “The Government of President Ricardo Maduro has realized the importance of the Honduran community in the U.S. That is why his administration has recognized the importance of the VTC project—for Hondurans won’t have to stay in detention centers longer than they need be, and will be able to go back to their families as soon as possible.”

ICE and the government of Honduras, working with the U.S. State Department, began discussions on VTC capability in February 2005. The government of Honduras officially approved using VTC on April 26, 2005 after careful consideration. This pilot program will soon be expanded to Honduran consular offices in Phoenix, Ariz., and Los Angeles, Calif. The government of Honduras indicated that VTC capability would ultimately be installed in all of its consulate offices across the nation. According to DHS statistics, from October 2004 through August 2005, ICE repatriated more than 6,600 Honduran nationals.

This VTC program is the latest of several initiatives launched by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deter aliens from illegally entering the United States by apprehending and quickly removing them to their countries of origin. Last month, for example, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff expanded Expedited Removal (ER) authority to the entire southwest border.

ER is an administrative process aimed at reducing the number of “Other than Mexicans” (OTMs) who have spent less than 14 days in the United States and who are apprehended within 100 miles of the border. OTMs apprehended under ER are detained and quickly returned to their countries of origin after receiving their travel documents. They are not required to appear before a federal immigration judge.

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