Self-deportation program launched in Chicago

Federal immigration officials in Chicago and four other cities Tuesday launched a self-deportation program for immigrants who don't have legal status in the U.S. and want to turn themselves in.

The offer had no immediate takers in Chicago, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

The "Scheduled Departure" program allows immigrants who have been ordered to leave the U.S. but have no criminal history to return to their home countries without first being arrested or detained, though participants may have to wear tracking devices or check in at offices until they go.

ICE officials said no one had turned themselves in to the Chicago office Tuesday morning. The program runs through Aug. 22.

ICE planned to run advertisements touting the program in La Raza, Chicago's largest Spanish-language weekly newspaper and three radio spots, two on Spanish-language stations and one on a Polish-language show, said Chicago's ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro.

The print advertisement, which offers an information hot line, reads "ICE's Scheduled Departure program gives you time to make arrangements and take care of personal matters. It is a way for you to plan your return home."

But immigrant rights groups were skeptical.

"This is a silly idea. Anybody that wants to self deport can self deport. They just drive across the border or hop on a plane," said Joshua Hoyt, the executive director of the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "It's another one of these fantasy ideas of the political season."

He said the program, which doesn't apply to an illegal immigrant with a criminal history, doesn't offer any advantages.

"The vast majority of immigrants are trying to stay in the U.S. because they have American citizen children, they have homes and they have jobs they've been working at for years," he said.

The criticism was echoed by Hector Palomino, 33, who emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico in 2002.

"It's not right," Palomino, who waited outside the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in downtown Chicago for a citizenship interview Tuesday. "People have children who are U.S. citizens. They'll be left alone."