Video: Napolitano Calls Reporting on DHS’s Sequestration Amnesty “Mythology”

Beware of any mentions of the word “myth” or mythology” by members of this regime. They like to use that word when the ugly truth escapes through the media gatekeepers. Lies = truth,  truth = mythology.

During a Politico Playbook breakfast in Washington D.C. this morning, DHS Sec Janet Napolitano lashed out at the news media last week for reporting that the agency released over 2,000 illegal immigrants ahead of the sequester cuts.

Via Charlie Spiering of The Washington Examiner:

“There was a story that ran last week that said ‘we released 2,000 detainees because of sequester’ Napolitano said, mocking the hype inferred by the headline.

“That is really not accurate,” she insisted.

“That was not a Politico story by the way,” Allen responded.

“It was not a Politico story, I will hasten to say, and I won’t say who put it out there,” Napolitano added. “But as in all things immigration it develops its own mythology.”

She would later admit that there were releases and they were due to the sequester:

When Allen questioned Napolitano about the timeline of the program, she admitted that the actions were related to the sequester cut deadlines, complaining about the “perfect storm” of budgetary problems.

“Several hundred were related to sequester but it wasn’t thousands,” Napolitano said sharply, although she admitted that the program would continue in the “foreseeable future.”

Here is what the Washington Free Beacon reported about the release:

The law requires ICE to maintain an average of 34,000 illegal immigrant detainees in its detention facilities. However, Rep. Michael McCaul (R., Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Wednesday that DHS reported fewer than 31,000 detainees as of last week, “in clear violation of the statute.”

According to Jessica Vaughan, policy director for the Center for Immigration Studies, ICE was recently ordered to reduce its detainee populations even further.

“Last week, ICE field offices all over the country were ordered to reduce the number of detainees from 34,000 to 25,000 by March 1,” Vaughan said in a post on the group’s website.

Now Napolitano says that only several hundred of those were related to sequester. As for the budget woes she says DHS is experiencing:

According to the White House Office of Management and Budget, DHS is slated to finish the year with more than $9 billion in unobligated funds.

Critics of ICE’s detainee release rejected the budget constraint explanation. Some suggested the administration was using detainee releases to accentuate the supposedly catastrophic effects of the sequester.

Jed Babbin of The American Spectator falls into this category:

Arizona is high on Obama’s list of enemies. It’s the state Obama’s Justice Department sued to set aside the state law that enables the arrest and detention of illegal aliens. The Supreme Court struck down part of the law, but left in place the part that allows state law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of people they’ve stopped for other reasons.

He talked to Sheriff Babeu, who told him that neither he nor the county’s police chiefs were given notice of the release.

I asked Babeu if he even knew who these people were. He said that he’s asked for that information numerous times, including by letter, and ICE has refused to tell him. “These people were released into the community. We don’t know their names, we don’t know what charges they were held on or their criminal history.” He added, “But we do know this: this is the same group that Janet Napolitano and Barack Obama have all agreed that these are the worst of the illegals.”

ICE is saying that some of these illegals were released on terms that supposedly provide some supervision. Sheriff Babeu is, to say the least, skeptical.

“They’re saying that they’re going to put them on supervised release, meaning some of them wear an ankle bracelet or they have to check in with authorities. Are you kidding me? These people have broken the law countless times and now they’ve got their chance. They’re out of prison.”

He added, “There’s no incentive for them to report in because what’s the worst thing we can do to them? Deport them?”

Sheriff Babeu apparently learned from ICE and Border Patrol agents who called him unofficially. He said, “Good people who work for ICE, work for Border Patrol, they call me all the time.…They said, ‘Sheriff, help us. We’re releasing all these criminals. This order just came down from Washington and now they’re all out in the streets.”

***

The release of criminal illegal aliens is probably illegal itself. Under our muddled immigration law, Napolitano has the authority to release illegal aliens individually when her department determines that they pose no danger to public safety. But mass releases, such as the one into Pinal County, are beyond her power.

The only answer to this is for Sheriff Babeu — perhaps joined by other concerned law enforcement officers around the country — to sue Napolitano to stop the releases. That lawsuit would reveal who the illegals are, what crimes they’ve committed before, and just who within ICE, the Justice Department, Homeland Security, or possibly the White House ordered the releases.

My question is probably a stupid one and has an easy answer. Why aren’t they sending these illegal immigrants back to Mexico?

Answer: (Of course) They are in removal proceedings but it  takes awhile…

UPDATE:

Another lie she told at that Politico breakfast has been exposed:

Weasel Zippers: Two Airports Cited By Big Sis As Having Sequester-Related Delays Both Say She’s Lying…

Did she really think nobody would check?

Via Telegraph:

Airports have denied a claim by Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, that the sequester is already causing long delays for travelers at security screening checkpoints.

Ms Napolitano said today that major airports were seeing lines “150 to 200 per cent as long as we would normally expect” as result of the federal spending cuts that went into force on Friday.

Like I said, yesterday – why would any reporter believe a word anyone from this administration says about anything? Shouldn’t the assumption always be that they’re lying to us at this point?

Linked by Doug Ross, thanks!