ICE Pilot Offers Enforcement Alternative
by Mickey McCarter
Friday, 15 August 2008

Fugitives get chance to leave US peacefully with Scheduled Departure

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will evaluate progress next week on a pilot program that permits fugitive aliens to voluntarily surrender to the agency and depart the United States on their own terms if they have no criminal history, Jim Hayes, acting director of the ICE Office of Detention and Removal, told HSToday.us.

The program, known as Operation Scheduled Departure, has been running in five US cities--Santa Ana, Calif.; San Diego; Phoenix, Ariz.; Chicago; and Charlotte, NC. Aliens who surrender in one of those cities receive up to 90 days to make arrangements to leave the country, Hayes said. The program started on August 5 and runs until August 22.

"We are not conducting this in lieu of our regularly scheduled operations. We have 104 fugitive operations teams that have been funded for us by Congress and those teams are still out every day conducting fugitive operations, searching for criminal and non-criminal fugitive aliens," Hayes emphasized.

ICE estimates that 457,000 of 572,000 fugitive aliens in the United States are eligible to participate in the program as they have no criminal histories. A fugitive alien is an illegal immigrant who has been ordered to leave the country by a US immigration judge but has not yet done so.

To date only six fugitives have turned themselves in--three in Chicago, one in Phoenix, one in Charlotte, and one in San Diego. Hayes cautioned that the pilot is really not about the numbers, however. Instead, it is a method of offering an alternative to fugitive aliens instead of facing an enforcement action.

"We are doing it because we think it is a convenient alternative for those individuals who are non-criminal fugitive aliens," Hayes explained. "We have sometimes been criticized for the method in which we conduct our fugitive operations by targeting people at their residences or places of business or working with local law enforcement to find them. We believe this is an alternative for those individuals to the government having total control to the method of enforcement and the time of removal."

The program also does not divert resources from any other ICE program. The pilot has cost less than $100,000. It could certainly pay for itself if a few more fugitive aliens surrender in the pilot cities, Hayes speculated.

"One of the individuals who came in was from the country of Estonia and a couple of the others were from India. Certainly, they would be in custody for perhaps as many as 30 days. If you cost that out, you could save as much as $10,000 just on those three individuals alone. If we get some more people coming in over the next week, the program could, in theory, pay for itself," he noted.

Scheduled Departure also has a toll-free number that takes questions about procedures for the program from callers. Hayes said more than 80 people have called the number to inquire about procedures for turning themselves in. Several have asked when the program might expand to other cities or become nationwide.

ICE officials will examine the program's progress before it ends next week and make a decision as to whether to continue it as is, expand it, or end it after August 22, Hayes said.
http://hstoday.us/content/view/4735/128/