[JURIST] The US Department of Homeland Security [official website] resumed its repatriation program [JURIST report; DHS backgrounder] for illegal immigrants from Mexico Friday with a flight carrying 67 people to Mexico City. This is the third straight summer that the federal government has used the program, which twice daily flies Mexicans caught illegally crossing the US-Mexico border to Mexico City and then buses them to their home communities. It specifically targets women, children, and those deemed at physical risk if they tried to cross the border again.

The US government hopes that the repatriation program will decrease the number of migrant deaths in the Arizona desert by reducing the number of people who, once returned to Mexican border cities, attempt to re-enter the US. Last summer, the program returned 20,592 people to Mexico over a course of 113 days and 225 flights. USA Today has more.