ICE stepping up Ohio deportations

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say they are stepping up the number of deportations from Ohio where 3,300 have been sent home this year.

That's up from 900 for all of 2007, the Columbus Dispatch reported Wednesday. It said immigration officials have upped the number of agents in the state from eight to 40 as officials continue a crackdown on mainly Hispanic illegal immigrants in the Midwestern state.

The Dispatch said it was allowed to accompany immigration agents as they loaded shackled deportees onto a plane at an unnamed Ohio airport. The newspaper said there were 99 detainees put onto an unmarked, white U.S. Marshal's jet, 95 of whom were men and most whom looked younger than 35.

Before being put on the plane, the marshals checked the detainees' mouths, hair and hands for hidden objects as immigration agents and deputies loaded catered meals and the immigrants' belongings onto the plane.

Such deportations can cost as much as $6,000 per person, immigration spokesman Greg Palmore told the Dispatch.