A new report from the Inspector General has found that the Obama Administration released 600 convicted criminal illegal aliens in 2013, including several who had been convicted of violent crimes and others that had fallen into the mandatory detention category. The administration blamed the releases as a consequence of the budget sequester.
From Feb. 9 to March 1 of 2013, Immigration and Customs Enforcement released 2,226 detainees, including 617 with criminal convictions. Most of the detainees were released in Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix, and Chicago.
The IG report placed blame for the decision on Radha Sekar, ICE's chief financial officer. The report noted that ICE officials had asked Sekar in the months leading up to the sequester about how funding would impact the agency, but those requests went unanswered. Then, just a few weeks before the sequester took effect, Sekar asked the White House for $22 million in additional funding. The illegal aliens were released before the White House responded to the request.
"We were not able to determine why ICE executive leadership did not wait for OMB to make a decision on releasing additional funding," stated the IG report.
The IG report also charged senior officials at ICE with providing "inaccurate" information to Congress and the public in response to the releases.
For more information, see the Daily Signal.
