Chron.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — The senior Homeland Security
Department official in charge of arresting and deporting illegal
immigrants announced his retirement the same day the agency said that
hundreds of people facing deportation had been released from immigration
jails due to looming budget cuts, according to a letter obtained
Wednesday by The Associated Press. The government said he had told his bosses weeks ago that he planned to retire.
Gary Mead,
executive associate director over enforcement and removal operations at
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, disclosed his departure in an
email to his staff Tuesday afternoon. The announcement of the release of
the illegal immigrants had come earlier in the day.
President Barack Obama's spokesman, Jay Carney,
said Wednesday that the decision to release the immigrants was made
without any input from the White House. He described the immigrants as
"low-risk, non-criminal detainees."
The
announcement that a few hundred illegal immigrants were being released
was among the most significant and direct implications described so far
by the Obama administration about the pending, automatic budget cuts
that will take effect later this week under what is known as
sequestration.-[Full Article]
