PHOENIX (Reuters) - The United States began a pilot program on Tuesday that allows some illegal immigrants to come forward and schedule their own deportation, after criticism that stepped-up raids cause traumatic family splits.

Immigration -- principally what to do with some 12 million mostly Hispanic illegal immigrants living and working in the shadows -- is a hot issue in the United States, especially in the midst of an election year and an economic downturn.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s Scheduled Departure program is set to run through August 22 in five cities. It offers fugitive illegal immigrants with no criminal history up to 90 days to leave the United States, during when they can stay out of jail.

An ICE fugitive is an illegal immigrant who has failed to leave after a final order of removal, deportation or exclusion from an immigration judge.

The program gives some 457,000 “non-criminal fugitive aliens an alternative to having us basically track them down, arrest and remove them on the government’s terms,” said Jim Hayes, ICE’s acting director for detention and removal operations.

“This will allow them a little bit of control over the removal process that ultimately will come for each and every one of them.”

The pilot program will run in Phoenix, Chicago, Charlotte, North Carolina, and San Diego and Santa Ana in California. It may be expanded.

In the past 10 months, ICE has nabbed more than 26,000 fugitives in stepped-up workplace raids that have been criticized by some immigration activists for breaking up families.

ICE said in a statement the program would be of particular benefit to fugitives with families because it allows them to make removal arrangements without being held in custody.

Eligible people must report to the police or wear an electronic monitoring device while making their travel arrangements.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which advocates for the rights of Latinos living in the United States, dismissed the program.

“It is reflective of a directionless immigration enforcement policy,” said John Trasvina, the group’s president and general counsel. “There is no incentive for people to do this. If people want to leave the country they can leave.”