Illegal immigrants released by ICE as budget cuts loom

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Tuesday announced it had released hundreds of illegal immigrants held in detention facilities, saying they no longer could afford to house them because of across-the-board cuts that are set to take effect Friday.

Federal authorities said that the detainees continue to face immigration charges, that they are being monitored and that violent offenders will not be let go.

ICE officials said the releases were from federal facilities and from jurisdictions where the agency has agreements with local authorities to hold detainees.

The Metropolitan Police Department could not say whether any prisoners were being released from Las Vegas. A spokesman for the city of Henderson referred a query to ICE.

The unusual action by Immigration and Customs Enforcement came as much of Washington plotted strategy for managing the deep cuts, known as sequestration, and for winning the political battle over them.

President Barack Obama flew to Newport News, Va. to highlight the effect the reductions would have on the defense industry, saying they would harm a facility that builds nuclear submarines. Other administration officials joined in, with Attorney General Eric Holder declaring in a speech, “The American people are going to be less safe.”

Politically, the president seemed to be trying to cause a split among Republican lawmakers who are set against raising taxes as part of a compromise to avoid the spending cuts and GOP lawmakers who are open to the idea.

Obama heralded Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Va., for endorsing an overhaul of the tax code that raises new revenue, bringing him to Newport News on Air Force One. He met later in the day with Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona, who have signaled that they would be open to more taxes as part of a broader compromise that also overhauled entitlements.

But GOP leaders showed no such interest Tuesday. House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio lashed out at Obama, saying he was exploiting members of the armed services to achieve political aims.

“I don’t think the president’s focused on trying to find a solution to the sequester,” Boehner said. “The president has been traveling all over the country and today [is] going down to Newport News in order to use our military men and women as a prop in yet another campaign rally to support his tax hikes.”

With the sequester all but certain to start Friday, Republicans and Democrats were positioning for a longer brawl that would last until at least late March, when a stopgap measure that funds the government expires.

The administration has acknowledged that the full brunt of the sequester wouldn’t be felt until near then, and both sides are looking to that battle to determine whether the cuts remain — and whether the government shuts down.

Senate Democrats are planning to advance a proposal before Friday that would halt much of the across-the-board reductions through the end of the year and replace them with a combination of other cuts and tax increases, including a new minimum tax rate for those making more than $5 million a year. It is not expected to get the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster.

Republicans are divided about their strategy. Senate Republicans had planned to push for a bill that would preserve the $85 billion in cuts but give the administration greater flexibility in how to manage them.

But McCain, Graham and other GOP senators say they oppose handing over the appropriations power, usually the domain of Congress, to the White House, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Tuesday that Republicans are still plotting their strategy. In any case, Democrats are expected to reject any GOP proposal that would leave the scale of the cuts intact.

Rigell told reporters on Air Force One that although the country needs to cut spending, “I also believe that revenue has to come up a bit, first by growing the economy, but also by tax reform, which also includes eliminating lobbyist-inspired, lobbyist-written loopholes.”

Republican leaders seemed uninterested, though, and announced that their first big bill of the year would be an overhaul of the tax code that would not raise the overall tax burden. In exchange for scaling back tax breaks, Republicans plan to lower rates.

“I’m not interested in new revenue at this point,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said Tuesday.

The Obama administration’s decision to release detainees in immigration facilities drew GOP criticism.

“The last thing you would do to meet a budget cut of this size would be to voluntarily undertake actions that undermine the rule of law and endanger the public safety,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

Historically, many illegal immigrants released from federal detention centers while in deportation proceedings do not show up for subsequent court appearances, joining the ranks of what the Immigration and Customs Enforcement calls absconders or “fugitive aliens.”

Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault contributed to this report.