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DHS to release thousands of illegal immigrants, blaming budget cuts

Published February 26, 2013


The Department of Homeland Security has started releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants held in local jails in anticipation of automatic budget cuts, in a move one Arizona sheriff called politically motivated -- and dangerous.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement released more than 500 detainees in his county alone over the weekend. A spokesman for Babeu told FoxNews.com that ICE officials have said they plan to release a total of nearly 10,000 illegal immigrants -- though an ICE official told FoxNews.com it's unclear how many ultimately might be released.

Babeu described the move as a "mass budget pardon" and suggested the administration was going to unnecessary lengths to demonstrate the impact of the so-called sequester.

"President Obama would never release 500 criminal illegals to the streets of his hometown, yet he has no problem with releasing them in Arizona. The safety of the public is threatened and the rule of law discarded as a political tactic in this sequester battle," he said.

An ICE spokeswoman confirmed the plans without specifying how many illegal immigrants might be released.

Spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said ICE had directed field offices to make sure the "detained population" is "in line with available funding." She stressed that ICE would continue to prosecute the cases while keeping them under supervision.

"Over the last week, ICE has reviewed several hundred cases and placed these individuals on methods of supervision less costly than detention," she said. "All of these individuals remain in removal proceedings. Priority for detention remains on serious criminal offenders and other individuals who pose a significant threat to public safety."

The announcement comes after DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano on Monday warned about the potential impact of the cuts. She said the department "would not be able to maintain the 34,000 detention beds as required by Congress."

"We're doing our very best to minimize the impacts of sequester. But there's only so much I can do," she said. "I'm supposed to have 34,000 detention beds for immigration. How do I pay for those?"

Republicans in Congress, though, have challenged the numerous Obama Cabinet secretaries warning about the devastating impact to their departments. With cuts set to take effect Friday and no deal in sight to avert them, Republicans claim the administration is trying to make the cuts seem worse than they are -- some want to give the administration more leeway so that high-priority agencies don't get hit as hard.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., called the move to release illegal immigrants "abhorrent." "By releasing criminal immigrants onto the streets, the administration is needlessly endangering American lives," he said in a statement.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., also said "these savings could be much more safely and rationally achieved."

In Arizona, Babeu slammed the move, painting his community as a victim of gridlock in Washington.

"Clearly, serious criminals are being released to the streets of our local communities by this mass budget pardon. These are illegals that even President Obama wants to deport. This is insane that public safety is sacrificed when it should be the budget priority that's safeguarded," he said.



Film at 11....

Sound like we can just go ahead and eliminate ICE if they are this useless.

Before the Spanish conquistadors arrived this was THEIR land!
The indigenous are just repatriating with their American cousins and taking it back state by state. BWAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!

Of course it was. All of the Southwest, Texas, & California belonged to Mexico. Who do you think lived in old Mexico?

So in anticipation they do this ? Sounds like the criminals are on both sides of the bars.

I'm sure someone in his regime made it happen, just for affect or is it effect, doesn't matter anyhoo.

Part of our Man-Child In-Chief's tantrum. "You won't raise taxes again? Fine, take this...and know its your fault." So, Obama (via his surrogates) is ordering the release of criminals into the community. How is this protecting and defending the American people? Does anyone really think that we will make any effort to "round 'em up" after the sequester?

Odd how none of Barry's disciples have commented on this.

still no baseball comments..?? you guys are slipping...

In their opinion, we've just spruced up the country for them but overstayed our welcome as guests.
They've had squatters' rights for over a thousand years.

I'm white/hispanic - does that mean I have dual squatting rights (here and in Europe)?

My family has been in Southern Texas for at least 200+ years. If their family had been smarter they would have settled up here before they drew the borders. If they want to join the club, they can fill out the application and pay the dues.

I can eat most anything with no side effects...

Yeah I see what your saying, but the term "American lands" could be defined as northern alaska/canada down through panama, unless you consider south america to also be under this term. I guess I'm looking at it from a migration perspective, where "natives" originally crossed over from asia millions of years ago and continually moved south to settle what is now north/south america (not even sure if this was proven).

So if someone is "indigenous" to America, how far back do you go to prove that they are? Or have I gone way off topic and thread-jacked the hell out of this?

My take in all of this is that you just need to deport the criminals (greyhound), and green-light the non-criminals to where they can start paying taxes. I don't really care if they become the majority. I love taco trucks and chorizo.

How much more work is it to realize them on the other side of the fence instead of the US? But I do realize were talking about our gubmint here and that this is ultimately a lost cause.