SALEM, Ore. (AP) - The state has reached a deal with federal officials to deport inmates who have less than six months left on their sentences if they are in the United States illegally.

The agreement between Oregon and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement potentially affects 206 state prison inmates, most of whom are from Mexico. Inmates convicted of violent or sexual crimes are ineligible for the program.

The early deportation program was signed into law last summer in Salem as part of a broad cost-saving corrections package. Several states dealing with the growing burden of prison costs have taken the same moneysaving step.

The state expected to save $700,000 by Dec. 1, but a legal glitch in reaching the agreement with the federal government held it up for six months.

Six inmates had their sentences commuted Tuesday and a handful of others are ready to be moved, said Jennifer Black, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections. Black said some inmates have declined to participate.

Inmates who participate waive their rights to challenge a deportation and face up to 20 years in federal prison if they are caught again in the country illegally.

Oregon’s 14 prisons house about 14,000 inmates; 1,236 of them are in the country illegally, according to the most recent Corrections Department tally.