According to a top public-interest watchdog, President Barack Obama is taking advantage of the probable "sequestration" cuts to the federal budget in order to provide a political smokescreen for his releasing of a large number of illegal aliens awaiting deportation from detention centers throughout the U.S., according to a report on Tuesday.
A number of illegal aliens were surreptitiously freed from federal immigration detention facilities in Texas, Florida and Louisiana, Judicial Watch reports, pointing to a newspaper story that quotes advocates reporting illegals being released.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials confirmed the low-key release program, but refused to say many illegal aliens were released.
Judicial Watch quotes an illegal alien who had been locked up for a violation. Manuel Perez issued a statement after being released from a detention facility in Texas this week: “Lots of us are getting out who were brought in for driving without a license or other small things,” Perez wrote. “I hope more of us are able to get out soon.”
This latest de facto "get out of jail free card" is part of the president's campaign to convince the nation that impeding budget cuts will harm national security, specifically border protection and the enforcement of federal immigration laws, according to Judicial Watch's blog.
"Ironically, releasing incarcerated illegal immigrants into the general population can certainly threaten the security of the communities where they are freed," states the JW blog.
However, according to economist Jorge Estaban-Cruz, an associate professor at SCI Technical College, "The President is being deceptive on all fronts. The so-called sequestration is a two-percent cut of any additional money added to the budget. In other words, instead of increasing spending by 20 percent, we'll only increase spending by 18 percent. It's a -- for want of a better term -- an enormous scam perpetrated on the fools who support him,"
Here is the statement from ICE that appears in the story:
“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. 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.”
Only a few months ago the administration a natural disaster -- a hurricane -- as an excuse to assist illegal aliens who have flouted U.S. law. The president actually created a special storm amnesty to justify waiving immigration laws, including for violators of the student visa program like the 9/11 hijackers who murdered thousands of Americans.
The unprecedented move came last November after Hurricane Sandy hit the northeast. In an notice posted by the Homeland Security agency handling the initiative, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Obama administration said it “understands that a natural disaster can affect an individual’s ability to maintain a lawful immigration status.”
Among the “benefits or relief” offered under the plan is “expedited adjudication of off-campus employment authorization applications for F-1 students experiencing economic hardship.” This would apply to foreign students like the al-Qaeda terrorists who trained as pilots in U.S. flight schools and purposely slammed commercial airplanes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001. All entered and lived in the U.S. with student visas and remained in the country even after they expired. One of the hijackers had enrolled—but never attended—a northern California language school, according to Judicial Watch.
Comments