Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington on Thursday, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry decried immigration authorities for releasing several hundred detainees in response to sequester cuts.
President Obama's handling of the sequster "would be laughable if he hadn't taken it one step too far, dangerously releasing criminals onto our streets to make a political point," he said. "When you have a federally sponsored jailbreak, --and dont get confused that's exactly what this is, a federally sponsored jailbreak -- you cross the line from politics as spin to polics as craven form of cynicism where everything goes."
White House officials say the decision was made by ICE independently. Many detainees are not held on criminal grounds and Immigration officials say they only released low risk individuals, not anyone who was required to be held for serious charges.