U.S. federal immigration officials announced their plans on Wednesday to give people who have been ordered by immigration courts to leave the country - or as officials put it, "fugitive aliens" – a maximum period of 90 days to turn their selves in, get their affairs in order and leave the U.S.

The federal immigration officials also took in consideration "fugitive aliens" who do not have the money to leave. The new program will take care of them and make the arrangements to leave the United States. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the fugitive aliens would be able to avoid detention pending their removal.

Under the program, each fugitive alien will have a record documenting when he leaves the country. The document will be helpful to authorities in case the person should seek to return legally.

The program will start with a pilot version on Tuesday and run through August 22 in five U.S. cities. If it proves to be efficient, it will most likely expand to other cities, said Jim Hayes, ICE's acting director for detention and removal. The first cities involved in the program dubbed "Operation Scheduled Departure" will be Santa Ana, California; San Diego, California; Chicago, Illinois; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Phoenix, Arizona.

Immigration officials estimated that there are as many as 500,000 fugitive aliens in the U.S. In 2007, the government sent about 30,000 fugitive aliens to their home countries using traditional methods. However, no official dared to guess how many fugitive aliens would be removed under the new program.

Douglas Rivlin of the National Immigration Forum, an immigrant advocacy group, said the new program just doesn’t have any advantage over the traditional methods.

"If you're really thinking about leaving the country anyway, I don't see the advantage of stopping into your local ICE office on your way to the airport," said Hayes. He added that immigrants would leave the country willingly if given the chance.

The new program will also feature a toll-free telephone number that fugitive aliens can call to arrange appointments with ICE case officers. ICE officers will also gather biographic information and fingerprints from the aliens. Those who have not committed any crimes and are not considered a threat to the communities they live in will be given up to 90 days to leave the country.

Officials said the toll-free telephone number will be operational next week and will be announced then.