Is this news article related to illegals at all? Immigration agency scraps self-deport program?

Question

Immigration agency scraps self-deport program

By AMY TAXIN

SANTA ANA, Calif. - The federal government will scrap a program for illegal immigrants to turn themselves in for deportation after only eight people volunteered during a nearly three-week trial, an official said Thursday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offered the pilot program in five cities, giving illegal immigrants facing court orders to leave the country 90 days to plan their departure and coordinate travel with relatives instead of facing the prospect of being arrested, detained and deported.

ICE will end its "Scheduled Departure" program when the trial period concludes Friday, Jim Hayes, acting director of ICE's detention and removal operations, told The Associated Press.

"The bottom line is it is not effective," Hayes said. "Quite frankly, I think this proves the only method that works is enforcement."

Hayes said other tactics have proven more effective. ICE has been tracking down so-called immigration "fugitives" by knocking on their doors at home, often during pre-dawn hours.

ICE offered the program to 457,000 illegal immigrants nationwide who have ignored judicial orders to leave the country but have no criminal record. Applicants could sign up at ICE offices in Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego and Santa Ana.

Immigrant advocates said the program had few incentives and failed to consider undocumented immigrants' ties to family in the U.S. They said they worry that ICE will cite the weak turnout as a reason to step up the raids, since it now can say that it made an effort to enforce the law in a way that was less disruptive to illegal immigrants and their families.

"My hope is it isn't going to empower them or fuel their enforcement even further," immigration lawyer Lisa Ramirez said Thursday.

ICE said it hatched the plan to quell criticism of the surge in immigration raids. One supporter of tougher enforcement said the low turnout will help insulate the agency from some of that criticism.

"It was calling their bluff," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

The program was criticized for offering little incentive for illegal immigrants to step forward since they would be barred from returning to the United States for as long as a decade.

And while ICE has increased arrests of illegal immigrants who fail to heed court orders to depart, several immigrants said many people feel they have a decent chance of sticking it out here longer than the government would give them if they came forward.

"Why are they going to go back to their country and pay someone to bring them over here again?" asked Rigoberto Moreno, 46, who entered the country illegally from Mexico as a teenager in the 1970s and has since become a U.S. citizen.

http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2008/08/21/ap/us/d92n1d8o0.txt

Answer 1

As Mehlman said, "it was calling their bluff".  The 500,000 fugitives that were eligible for this program are now eligible to be ripped from their beds at dawn.

They cannot wail about being arrested, shackled, separated from their children and deported because they had their chance.  I have no doubt that we are going to see some very serious raids very soon.  And I suspect that if they've ignored this chance to get out, they may be facing prison time.  Boo hoo.

But to answer your question, yes, this deals with illegals.  All 500,000 people on the list are here illegally - whether they snuck in or overstayed their visas, they have been caught, told to deport and released - trusting that they would in fact depart.  As they haven't left, they're now on a wanted list.  And that's 500,000 from 4 cities - imagine how many fugitive aliens are here nationwide.

Answer 2

WOW! a lot of my tax dollars wasted on that program!!!!!!!!! I wonder how many man hours they paid the agents to sit around and wait?

Answer 3

Yes.  Yes and in a very interesting way.  If you are not a criminal running from the Mexican Police, the chances that you will be arrested in the coming change over to the Real I.D. is very high.  I am not sure the Federal Government will enforce the I.D., but if they do, the very best way to get out of the country is to turn yourself in, and leave.

Answer 4

Yes it is. Would US citizens with arrest warrants turn themselves in voluntarily if they were asked to do so? After all that would be the right thing to do and save us the money of looking for them.

Answer 5

Sounds like illegals....  "the prospect of being arrested, detained and deported" is not incentive enough to voluntarily leave....  LMAO, would be a good incentive if the shoe were on my foot and I was in Mexico!!