Hours before President Obama authorized the government to begin cutting $85 billion from federal accounts on Friday, a newswire revealed that the Homeland Security Department had released from jails over 2,000 illegal immigrants facing deportation, and was planning to set free 3,000 more this month to deal with the "sequester."
The U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the agency that runs the detention facilities, released around 1,000 illegal immigrants from its jails across the country each week beginning at least Feb. 15, The Associated Press reported.
The newswire says it reviewed internal budget documents, which said field offices had reported more than 2,000 immigrants freed before the plan was shut down following intense criticism this week.
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