Yes, Mr President, I'm still in 4th grade
Yeah, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer
said that:
Brewer told Fox News on Friday that she thought the release of immigration detainees in Arizona may have been retribution by the Obama administration for taking a tough stance on border security and illegal immigration and for passing SB 1070, the state’s immigration-enforcement law.
"It could be payback ... to punish Arizona," Brewer said. "They are pushing back ... because we want our borders secured."
Because that's what stupid GOP governors do when they go on stupid FOX News: they say really stupid shit, like the Department of Homeland Security's
release of immigrants who pose no serious threat is President Obama's way of getting back at Arizona for passing SB 1070.
Or maybe he's still got a bee up his butt because Gov. Brewer wagged her scraggly finger in his face, and the DHS cuts necessitated by the sequester provide him a golden opportunity to "get back" at her. He probably planned the whole thing and didn't even try to stop this madness just so he could release hundreds of scary brown people into Jan Brewer's backyard. After all, her claim substantiates Bob Woodward story that Obama is a thug.
EARTH TO JAN BREWER: Put that misguided sense of your own significance back in bubblewrap where it belongs. The releases have nothing to do with payback for your "taking a tough stance" on border security. If anything, it's been President Obama who's been the tough guy, much more than George Bush. Obama increased funding and patrols to the border region to the point immigration is at net zero and crime is down considerably. He's also deported a shitload of immigrants—more than one million in his first term against 1.57 million during two Bush terms, which has not served him well with Hispanics or many in his own party.
Here's the unhappy truth, Jan: There are almost 31,000 immigrant inmates held in prisons nationwide, at a cost of up to $164 a day. That's a huge chunk of change, and with DHS's looming budget cuts, caused by the GOP's allergic reaction to closing tax loopholes, savings have to be made. DHS's "supervised release" is the difference between $14 a day and $164. Do the math. To date approximately 2,000 immigrants have been released in Arizona, California, Georgia and Texas—a savings of around $300,000 per day. You'd think "fiscally conservative" Republicans would be overjoyed at the savings; but when it comes to immigration, as we've seen with a very expensive Sheriff Arpaio, their bigotry always trumps their wallet.
The GOP whambulence is out in full force, whining about the immigrant release program, as if, using his Star Wars-Star Trek power trick, President Obama should have done a Jedi Mind Meld, ignore sequestrations cuts to DHS, and keep every immigrant behind bars. Some, like Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, have been all over FOX News, complaining that DHS didn't notify him about each released detainee's record. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose office notified other sheriffs, said she regrets not contacting Babeu, but, in the meantime, here you go, sheriff:
After being detained for two and a half years by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Eloy, Arizona, 39-year-old Maria Hernadez said she thought it was some sort of joke when suddenly last Saturday she was told she could go home.
“Oh my lord. I could not believe it, I was very very happy,” said Hernandez. “But when they said home I was afraid they would send me back to my country.”
Instead Maria was allowed to go home to her husband, a legal resident, and her daughter, a U.S. citizen.
That's a fair sample of what DHS means by "minimal" or "low" security—family members who've lived and worked here for years, who have children, who have a job and pay taxes, who have no criminal record. Unfortunately for them, they got caught in one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's immigration sweeps, as did 70-year-old
Rafael Lavallade Gonzalez, whose story recently made headlines here. Their Sophie's choice is to deport immediately with a record for life, unable to return to their U.S. family without facing serious jail time if caught, or sit in prison, sometimes for years, awaiting trial (bail is usually denied in these cases).
It's no wonder the private prison industry supported SB 1070, a veritable cash cow. As I wrote this week, Brewer's bellyaching may have less to do with security and more to do with the private prisons' clout in Arizona. Two of her key aides are former lobbyists for the industry, which supported SB 1070 through campaign donations to the ALEC-sucking pinheads who crafted the "papers please" law. While at this point we don't know how many immigrant inmates have been released from which facilities, it's fair to say some of them were held in private prisons—a huge blow to the industry's bottom line.
Wait for Brewer's next conspiracy: the releases are Obama's way of getting back at the private prison industry, cutting into their profits so they have less money to donate to her. Because it's always about her.