The threat of sequestration is allowing several hundred illegal immigrants in Georgia and across the country to get their “get out of jail free cards” – sort of.

Federal officials say they are releasing detained illegal immigrants across the country to cut costs in ahead of the automatic spending cuts that are set to go into effect Friday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official won’t say how many illegal immigrants are getting out, but they have confirmed that some at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia are free.

“As fiscal uncertainty remains over … possible sequestration, ICE has reviewed its detained population to ensure detention levels stay within ICE’s current budget,” the agency said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “Over the last week, ICE has reviewed several hundred cases and placed these individuals on methods of supervision less costly than detention.”

Such supervision could include electronic monitoring with ankle bracelets and mandatory appointments with ICE. The deportation cases, though, have not been dropped against the released detainees. If a judge orders the immigrants, then ICE says they will deport them.

It costs ICE $164 per day to detain one inmate. The Washington-based National Immigration Forum released a report last year saying alternatives to detention only cost between 30 cents and $14 a day.

“We’re doing our very best to minimize the impacts of sequester,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday. “But there’s only so much I can do. I’m supposed to have 34,000 detention beds for immigration. How do I pay for those?”

As of Friday, ICE was holding more than 2,000 immigrants in four detention centers in Georgia (Atlanta, Gainesville, Lumpkin and Ocilla).

Republicans are accusing the White House of gamesmanship in the contentious debate over the across-the-board spending cuts, called sequestration.

“This decision by the Obama administration is just another example of the White House’s skewed priorities for political gain in the ongoing spending-cuts debate,” said Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss.

“Despite President Obama’s attempts to rewrite history, this is his sequester,” said U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Marietta. “And now, rather than governing, he is waging a nationwide public relations campaign warning against his very idea. The bottom line is it’s the spending cuts — not necessarily the sequester itself — that must be implemented.”

But immigration advocates are thrilled; claiming the dentition of non-violent illegal immigrants is pointless.

“They are all showing up to court,” Amna Shirazi, an Atlanta area immigration attorney told the AJC. “We are just not paying for them to be detained, which I think is a great thing.”

The White House has been issuing dire warnings about the consequences of sequestration this week while pushing Congress to eliminate tax loopholes and deductions along with some government spending. Republicans in Congress have rejected those plans, saying they won’t support tax increases.