Tribes are being forced to cut back on law enforcement and justice programs due the sequester of the federal budget.

Automatic, across-the-board cuts went into effect on March 1. The loss was felt immediately by the Red Lake Nation of Minnesota, which cut 22 jobs.

Another 17 jobs could be cut by the end of the year. "[P]ublic safety operations at Red Lake will collapse" as a result, Chairman Floyd Jourdain Jr. told the Associated Press.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota just opened a $25 million detention facility. But the annual operating budget of $5 million will be cut to $840,000 under the sequester.

“I don’t think this is intentional, but I do feel like it’s the government’s way of controlling things,” jail administrator Melissa Eagle Bear told the AP.

Get the Story:
Automatic budget cuts would hit tribal programs that serve some of country’s most vulnerable (AP 3/16)

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