ImmigrationNapolitano says she had no part in immigrant releases

DHS secretary Janet Napolitano said  she was not part of the decision to release hundreds of immigrants from detention last week. The immigrants were released as the agency scrambled to prepare for sequestration-related budget cuts. She also said that the timing of the announcement was poor.

“Detainee populations and how that is managed back and forth is really handled by career officials in the field,” Napolitano told ABC News. “Do I wish that this all hadn’t been done all of a sudden and so that people weren’t surprised by it? Of course,” Napolitano added.

Napolitano did not provide too many details about  how sequestration would affect DHS, but she said it would  effect this will have on border security.

“We are always going to put safety first, and that’s why we’re not going to be abbreviating our safety procedures or any of that,” Napolitano told ABC News. “But, by way of example, the number of Border Patrol hours that will need to be reduced equates to the equivalent of 5,000 Border Patrol agents.”

According to Napolitano, the cuts will make it harder for the agency to stop “the large narco traffickers, human smugglers,” and other bad players that could now have easier access to the United States.

“We deal with a lot of bad actors and we will have fewer agents to do that with,” she said. “We’ll have fewer hours that the Coast Guard is going to be patrolling along our maritime shores.”

The loss of services includes the TSA, which could lead to longer lines at airports as well as at border crossings.

“I think a citizen is going to notice. If there’s citizens that are trying to go back and forth to Mexico and Canada, to the land ports of entry, where we already have some problems with long lines at very busy times, you’re going to see those lines really grow.

“Those lines are going to grow significantly at some of the larger airports,” Napolitano added. “We’re going to have fewer people to do the checks we do. The checks are going to have to be the same. We do those for security reasons. But we’re going to, over time, have fewer people to do them.”

Napolitano said the effects will not be seen immediately, but eventually the long lines and lack of patrolmen on the border will become commonplace.

“From this department’s standpoint, the longer lines at the ports, the reduction of Border Patrol hours and Coast Guard operations, those are the things that will be most visible.”