SANTA ANA, Calif. — Wanted: Illegal immigrants with clean records who have ignored court orders to leave the country. Immigration officials are standing by to help you leave the country. No jail. No joke.
That invitation drew hardly any takers Tuesday on the first day of a new federal “self- deportation” program that offered 457,000 eligible illegal immigrants the chance to turn themselves in, get their affairs in order and leave the country without being detained.
The offer from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement runs through Aug. 22 in Santa Ana, San Diego, Chicago, Phoenix and Charlotte, N.C., as part of the agency’s new Scheduled Departure Program. It could be expanded nationwide if successful.
By Tuesday afternoon, only one person — in Phoenix — took the offer, said an ICE official who spoke on condition of anonymity because not all the numbers were in.
