Roost meet chickens
Jan Brewer's been an esteemed member of the Crazy Republican Governors Club—joining lugheads like Scott Walker, Sam Brownback and Rick Scott who've embraced the tea party's "cut the deficit" gibberish, seemingly unaware of the effects in their state. Now Brewer and her looney tunes ideologues are getting a taste of Norquist's bathtub politics. She's finding out what GOP obstructionism is going to cost Arizona, and it began this week with her state's former governor, Janet Napolitano, releasing immigrants.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says she's appalled to hear that the Department of Homeland Security has begun releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants from custody. It's the first of potentially thousands of immigrants to soon be freed before mandatory federal budget cuts go into effect.
The reality chicken has come home to roost in the guise of nearly 31,000 immigrants held in jails nationwide. That's an expensive undertaking, and the sequester will wallop DHS upside the head, necessitating huge cuts. Rather than $164 a day to incarcerate one inmate, the "supervised release" planned for prisoners who pose no serious threat costs less than $14 per day—a blow to prison profits, even if only
some inmates
are held in private facilities.
Gillian Christensen, an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] spokeswoman, said ICE has reviewed "several hundred cases" of immigrants being held in jails around the country and released them in the last week. They have been "placed on an appropriate, more cost-effective form of supervised release," she said.
Gov. Brewer is not the only Republican pissing into the windy consequences of her party's boneheadedness. Others have accused President Obama of using the immigrant release as a scare tactic and political ploy—their thinking [
sic] being, I guess, that the president believes Mexican hating just might bring Republicans together and end this nonsense. Others, like House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), said the prisoner release will threaten safety and congressional momentum toward
immigration reform:
"By releasing criminal immigrants onto the streets, the Administration is needlessly endangering American lives. It also undermines our efforts to come together with the Administration and reform our nation's immigration laws."
When did you "come together" with the administration about
anything? Hell, you'll filibuster your own bill if Obama supports it.
HEY DICKHEADS! You say you don't want scary brown people living in less secure facilities? You say you wanna lock 'em up good and tight? You say you don't want your sugar daddy prisons to lose revenue? Well, some of us want to save Head Start, college loans, meals for seniors, teachers' jobs, public health assistance, child care and about 750,000 jobs. But if the feather that tickles your nutsack is locking up immigrants, go for it.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) has a bill waiting in the House that'll end this manufactured bullshit by closing loopholes that Republicans once said they wanted closed. Remember Mitt Romney? Hollen's is a "balanced" approach—you know, the one most Americans favor. Gov. Brewer, you have the phone number of the four Arizona GOP congressmen. You don't even have to call the five Dems! Quit bellyaching about what DHS is forced to do and pick up the damn phone! Wag your finger in someone else's face! And you're welcome to pass on my advice to other members of the Crazy Republican Governors Club.
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