As part of the president's ongoing Seuqestermageddon campaign, the Department of Homeland Security would like you to believe that the across-the-board budget cuts will hamper efforts to secure our nation's borders and fight terrorism. No biggie, right?
"At the borders, Napolitano said the department would have to scale back patrols between ports of entry in the southwest United States, after years of making progress in stopping people from entering the country illegally from Mexico," the Washington Post reports.
You know what else tends to put a damper on such progress? Releasing a bunch of illegal immigrants you already have in custody:
The federal government released groups of illegal immigrants from custody across the country Monday at the same time the White House was making its case that impending budget cuts would harm efforts to protect the border and enforce federal immigration laws.Advocates reported “waves” of illegal immigrants being released from at least three detention centers in Texas, Florida and Louisiana.
U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement confirmed the release of some illegal immigrants Monday night but would not say how many or from which detention centers.
“In order to make the best use of our limited detention resources in the current fiscal climate and to manage our detention population under current congressionally mandated levels, ICE has directed field offices to review the detained population to ensure it is in line with available funding,” said ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen. “As a result of this review, a number of detained aliens have been released around the country and placed on an appropriate, more cost-effective form of supervised release.”
Hm: It's almost as if the Obama administration is setting the stage here for issues which he'll likely later blame on Republicans.
This means one of three things: a) there is no resolution to the sequestration standoff in the pipeline; b) the Obama administration is using the sequestration strife as an excuse to halt prosecutions and deportations; or c) both a & b.
