In Power Play, Obama Administration Releases Illegal Immigrants Ahead of Sequester

Release of About 300 Illegal Immigrants from Federal Custody in Arizona Stirs Up Debate (Washington Post)

TUCSON— The release of about 300 illegal immigrants from federal custody in Arizona this week has raised a firestorm of controversy in this volatile border state, which has one of the nation’s toughest laws against illegal immigration and is home to highly vocal groups on both sides of the debate.

Senior Republican officials in the state, including Gov. Jan Brewer and Sen. John McCain, sharply criticized the releases, which the Obama administration said it is carrying out in several states in anticipation of budget cuts under sequestration. Brewer, an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration, called the move “pure political posturing” that would endanger public safety.

McCain, a moderate who has been working with Senate colleagues on a plan for comprehensive immigration reform, said he was “very concerned” about the releases because they are an early indicator of what could happen if sequestration goes into effect Friday. “These people should not be released,” he said. “There’s a reason why they were incarcerated.”

Paul Babeau, sheriff of Pinal County, called the releases a “mass budget pardon” that would put criminals on the streets. “These are aliens with felony convictions, who have been released into my county,” he said in an interview. Babeau said about 50 illegal immigrants had been freed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from the Pinal County jail, which he oversees, “without warning and under cloak of secrecy. It’s outrageous.”

Several human rights organizations and legal aid groups here said the freed immigrants posed no threat to the public, had not committed serious offenses and should have been freed long ago rather than being kept in custody at government expense. They described some of the immigrants as innocent victims of Arizona’s strict law, in which local police are required in many cases to turn over suspected illegal immigrants to federal officials.

“These people should have been released a long time ago,” said Sarah Lanius, a spokeswoman for No More Deaths, a non-profit group in Tucson that runs free legal clinics for illegal immigrants. “Every person who comes to our clinic is out on bond from detention and following through on their removal proceedings,” she said. “They were stopped in silly traffic cases or other situations, and they have no business being put through all this. It is a direct contradiction of what the administration promised.”