U.S. resumes fast-track deportation flights of Central American migrant families

FILE PHOTO: Migrants arrive on a chartered flight from Brownsville, Texas in El Paso, Texas, U.S. March 17, 2021. REUTERS/Paul Ratje/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday resumed fast-track deportation flights for migrant families that recently arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border, amid a sharp increase in the number of migrants at the southern border.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement the flights would transport Guatemalan, Honduran and Salvadoran migrant families who could not be immediately expelled under a coronavirus-related public health policy and did not have a legal basis to stay in the country.