U.S. Immigration To Launch Self-Deportation Program

July 30, 2008 12:18 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will launch next week a self-deportation program to cut the country's huge illegal immigrant population.

U.S. ICE Director Julie Myers provided a look at the program during an interview on a Spanish language television network. Under the program, illegal migrants may enter an ICE office voluntarily, be processed and be given a few weeks to prepare, pack up and leave the U.S. without the threat of imprisonment.

Beyond what Myers said, ICE officials in Washington, San Antonio and Dallas declined to provide more details. But even before the official launch of the program, immigration groups dismissed it as having little or no chances of success because it doesn't offer illegal immigrants any incentives.

The program appears to have been patterned after the Fugitives Safe Surrender of the U.S. Marshal Service launched in 2005. The FSS gave non-violent criminals with outstanding arrest warrants a chance to surrender to authorities. More than 16,000 turned themselves in.

The growing illegal immigrant population is a major headache for the U.S. government. In fiscal 2007, ICE sent back over 275,000 undocumented aliens from the U.S., including more than 40,000 who voluntarily offered to go back home.