02/26/2013
This just in, from the government that wants us to trust them to run a mega amnesty program for millions: an unspecified number of detained aliens have been freed rather than deported.
It’s an indication that the Obama administration intends to intensify the pain of the sequester rather than make prudent cuts that won’t cause trouble for Americans. After all, the point is to blame Republicans because they won’t go along with big tax increases. Obama clearly hopes his bash-Republicans strategy will win him the House in 2014, and he is willing to create sequester misery to get there.
Another example is DHS Secretary Napolitano’s warning on Monday that the sequester cuts to her agency will make America more vulnerable to a terrorist attack.
“I don’t think we can maintain the same level of security at all places around the country with sequester compared to without sequester,” she complained.
This tactic is an escalation of the so-called Washington Monument strategy, explained by Byron York in a Feb 21 column, Budget hawks question Pentagon’s doomsday scenarios:
There’s no doubt President Obama is using the so-called Washington Monument maneuver in the fight with Republicans over sequestration budget cuts. It’s a time-honored tactic of bureaucratic warfare: When faced with cuts, pick the best-known and most revered symbol of government and threaten to shut it down. Close the Washington Monument and say, “See? This is what happens when you cut the budget.” Meanwhile, all sorts of other eminently cuttable government expenditures go untouched.
Does the Obama gang hope that a jihadist attack might occur during the sequester time frame to allow even more extreme blaming of Republicans? Is the plan to reduce security to the point where hostiles could enter, or is treasonous jawboning as far as they will go? You have to wonder what the limit is on Obama’s second term arrogance.
Also keep in mind that all this noise and drama is over an amount that isn’t an actual budget cut, but a reduction in the rate of spending increases. It’s hard to imagine the howling that would ensue if the serious cutbacks necessary would ever be taken up.
In face of coming budget cuts, U.S. frees illegal immigrants from custody, Kansas City Star, February 25, 2013
WASHINGTON — 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.”
Christensen said ICE is continuing to prosecute their cases in immigration court and will seek their removal from the country.
“We’re getting reports from multiple detention centers in Texas, Florida and New Orleans where detainees who are low priority are being released in mass without bond,” Domenic Powell, a spokesman for the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, an immigration advocacy group, said Monday night.
The White House has warned of devastating across-the-board spending cuts scheduled to take place this week as part of a 2011 bipartisan deal to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next decade. Janet Napolitano, head of the Department of Homeland Security, said Monday that the cuts would be “disruptive and destructive” to national security.
“Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also part of DHS, will be forced to reduce detention and removal and would not be able to maintain the 34,000 detention beds as required by Congress,” she said. “It would also reduce our investigative activities in areas like human smuggling and commercial trade fraud.”
She said Customs and Border Patrol would have to force all of its employees to take unpaid time off, reduce overtime and eliminate positions. She said reduced hours would mean up to 5,000 fewer Border Patrol agents working at ports of entry.
“Lots of us are getting out who were brought in for driving without a license or other small things,” Manuel Perez, a detainee at the Polk Detention Center in Livingston, Texas, said in a statement released by the National Immigrant Youth Alliance. “I hope more of us are able to get out soon.”
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