Politics

DHS Official Resigns After White House Blasted for Illegal Aliens Freed Supposedly Over Budget Cuts

Today the White House was questioned over illegal aliens being released supposedly because of sequester budget cuts – they denied any involvement.

However, hours after this press conference, ICE official Gary Mead announced he would resign – he’s the head of the illegal alien detainment program:

From the AP:

WASHINGTON—The Associated Press has learned that the Homeland Security Department official in charge of the agency’s immigration enforcement and removal operations has resigned after hundreds of illegal immigrants were released from jails because of government spending cuts.

In an email obtained Wednesday by the AP, Gary Mead told coworkers that he was leaving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the end of April. Mead is the head of enforcement and removal operations at ICE.

Mead had told co-workers of his resignation in the email sent Tuesday, hours after U.S. officials had confirmed that a few hundred illegal immigrants facing deportation had been released from immigration jails due to budget cuts.

President Barack Obama’s spokesman said Wednesday the White House was never consulted but described the immigrants as “low-risk, non-criminal detainees.”

Here’s some more info about him from his bio at DHS:

Gary Mead is the Executive Associate Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Washington D.C. Mr. Mead oversees a $2.5 billion budget and 8,395 employees. ERO promotes public safety and national security by removing national security threats, high-risk criminal aliens, illegal alien fugitives, and absconders; and ensuring safe and effective custody management for more than 30,000 illegal aliens in custody each day.

As I reported yesterday, the 8% cuts in the ICE budget are wildly out of proportion with the 24% of illegals set to be allowed to go free. So what’s the story here? Did Obama fire the guy to save face, or did the White House not really know this was happening?

I doubt the lapdog media will help get to the bottom of this…

UPDATE:

Glenn Beck’s Blaze site is reporting that ICE denies his resignation had anything to do with the illegal alien releases – hours after the White House got nailed on it? Really?