It didn't a lot of brains to call out the administration for releasing illegal aliens from prison and then blame budget cuts that hadn't even occurred yet. The author of this edition of Obama scaremongering over the sequester - DHS's Gary Mead, executive associate director over enforcement and removal operations at ICE, "retired" immediately after the story broke.

Associated Press:

The senior Homeland Security Department official in charge of arresting and deporting illegal immigrants announced his retirement the same day the agency said that hundreds of people facing deportation had been released from immigration jails due to looming budget cuts, according to a letter obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The government said he had told his bosses weeks ago that he planned to retire.

Gary Mead, executive associate director over enforcement and removal operations at Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, disclosed his departure in an email to his staff Tuesday afternoon. The announcement of the release of the illegal immigrants had come earlier in the day.

President Barack Obama's spokesman, Jay Carney, said Wednesday that the decision to release the immigrants was made without any input from the White House. He described the immigrants as "low-risk, non-criminal detainees."

The announcement that a few hundred illegal immigrants were being released was among the most significant and direct implications described so far by the Obama administration about the pending, automatic budget cuts that will take effect later this week under what is known as sequestration.

Republicans in Congress quickly criticized the decision and pressed the Homeland Security Department for details.

In an email to his staff obtained by the AP, Mead said he was leaving the agency at the end of April "with mixed emotions." He did not say what prompted his departure. Mead did not immediately respond to an email and a telephone call.

Don't ya love Carney? "Low risk, non criminal" detainees. They wouldn't be in jail if they didn't break the law, Jay so stop spinning what DHS was really trying to accomplish; scare people with visions of waves of brown people descending on their towns after being released due to budget cuts.

Again, DHS has yet to explain why they had to be relased before the sequester took effect on Friday. If not to put political pressure on Republicans, then what?

Finally, the press is starting to ask some questions about Obama's claims. How far they'll go is another question, but poking holes in Obama's sequester nonsense can only help.