Squads of immigration agents are going around the country knocking on doors, scouting out street corners for day laborers, stopping cars driven by foreign-looking people and raiding factories in search of undocumented immigrants. It's literally a manhunt that is not only taking a toll on immigrant families but is draining the resources of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. So, now it is asking for help.

ICE has come up with a new pet project. It's being called “Operation Scheduled Departure.” It looks like the agency is so overwhelmed with its hunting expedition that it wants immigrants to aid in their own deportation. This is what ICE proposes: If you are a “fugitive alien,” turn yourself in. Those who adhere to this program will avoid being jailed, and they will have up to 90 days to make the necessary arrangements to leave and take their family with them.

According to Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Julie Myers, this pilot program is in response to those immigrants who were arrested and deported and said they would have liked some time to leave things in order. Myers says the plan targets hundreds of thousands of immigrant fugitives who do not have a criminal background.

Now, think about it: If they do not have a criminal background, then why are they being considered fugitives? Sounds confusing, doesn't it? The government defines “fugitive immigrants” as those who have deportation orders -- mostly immigrants who have been deported before and came back into the country or who violated a previous deportation order. They are the ones who qualify for this voluntary deportation program, but NOT if they have committed “other” crimes.

The pilot program is supposed to run from Aug. 5 through Aug. 22, and includes five cities: Phoenix, Chicago, Charlotte, N.C., San Diego and Santa Ana, Calif. If effective, it could be extended. Immigration authorities claim there are some 457,000 fugitive immigrants in the country. Mind you, that does not include other undocumented immigrants who are not considered fugitives, even though immigration agents are also going after them. I know, I know, it still sounds confusing.

In 2007, 274,000 undocumented immigrants were deported from the U.S. Only a fraction of those were fugitive immigrants. That is because when ICE agents go out in search of these so-called fugitives and happen to run into other immigrants who cannot provide proof of legal residency in this country, they arrest them too. I've written about those before -- they are called “collateral arrests,” those who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. And the consequences for them when they do get arrested could be devastating.

Juana Villegas is one of those cases. Villegas was stopped by an agent in a small suburb of Nashville, Tenn., and detained for driving without a license. The pregnant immigrant was accompanied by her three children, all born in the United States, and was three days away from giving birth to her fourth. She was kept in a detention center until her water broke, and then was taken to the hospital in handcuffs and kept that way until two hours before giving birth.

Shortly after the baby was born, Villegas was again shackled, and two days later was sent back to the detention center without the possibility of breastfeeding her child. During the whole time, the woman was not allowed to contact her husband, who found out about the birth of his child only when agents called him to tell him to pick up the baby.

Villegas, who crossed the border from Mexico 14 years ago, was considered a medium-security inmate because 12 years ago she was deported and then returned. This was enough reason for police officers acting as immigration officials to keep a pregnant woman in shackles during labor.

The new voluntary deportation project is being criticized by immigration activists, who say the government is not trying to do undocumented immigrants a favor by giving them a chance to choose the terms of their departure, but rather helping itself in relieving its heavy workload. Most doubt that immigrants will willingly turn themselves in, especially if they have a family to support and children who were born here. Though there might be some who are tired of being hunted down like animals or treated like an assassin, the way Villegas was.

By the way, in the first 48 hours of the pilot program, one immigrant turned himself in. He was Ukrainian.

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(Maria Elena Salinas is the author of “I AM MY FATHER'S DAUGHTER: LIVING A LIFE WITHOUT SECRETS.” Reach her at www 
.mariaesalinas.com)

© 2008 by Maria Elena Salinas

Distributed by King Features Syndicate