Feds Release Wave of Detained Immigrants

Still face deportation, but are on supervised release

In a highly unusual move, federal immigration officials have released a wave of detainees from immigration detention centers around the country in an effort to save money as automatic budget cuts loom in Washington, officials said.

The government has not dropped the deportation cases against the immigrants, however: The detainees have been freed on supervised release while their cases continue in court, officials said.

The releases, which have taken place over the past few days, were approved "in order to make the best use of our limited detention resources in the current fiscal climate and to manage our detention population under current congressionally mandated levels," Gillian M. Christensen, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. The budget cuts, also called the sequester, are scheduled to take effect Friday.