Modern Marvels: Dangerous Cargo... Aliens?!

It is now about 12:14 AM (quarter past midnight) and I just saw on Modern Marvels a thing about dangerous cargo and they showed a plane that transported prisoners from jail to jail across the country. In a close up of one of the police escorts, a badge was read aloud by the narrater and it said "blah blah something prisoner and alien transportation something something". Does anybody know anything about JPATS (mentioned multiple times during the show) or anything about this plane?

It stuck me as very odd that the badge would say "... and alien transportation" on it. The badge was on the officers left sleeve, it was blue, had some sort of symbol or emblem in the center, and the writing was white.

OK I just googled JPATS and it turns out it stands for Justice Prisoner & Alien Transportation System. Maybe I should have used google first...

Doesn't anybody know anything about why it says alien transportation? What the heck is that plane used for when it's not transporting prisoners?

In 1995, the air fleets of the Marshals Service and the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) merged to create the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS). The merger created a more efficient and effective system for transporting prisoners and criminal aliens. Operated by the Marshals Service, JPATS is one of the largest transporters of prisoners in the world - handling hundreds of requests every day to move prisoners between judicial districts, correctional institutions and foreign countries.

Rest of the story here

Criminal aliens... am I missing something?

[edit on 3/24/2005 by diehard_democrat]

[edit on 3/24/2005 by diehard_democrat]