Trump Official Ken Cuccinelli Speaks to Anti-Immigrant Hate Group
The acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) became the latest Trump administration official to speak at an event organized by the anti-immigrant hate group Center for Immigration Studies.
Ken Cuccinelli, the USCIS acting director, participated Thursday in the center鈥檚 鈥淚mmigration Newsmaker鈥� speaker series. He is the fourth member associated with the Trump administration to appear as part of the center鈥檚 speaker series.
鈥淭he president鈥檚 doing a lot of good things right now in the immigration space,鈥� Cuccinelli said.
Cuccinelli lauded the administration鈥檚 聽the "catch and release" policy, which allows migrants to stay in the United States while their immigration cases are processed.
鈥淚 will say going forward, any 'catch and release' is off now,鈥� Cuccinelli said. 鈥淪o even families that come up know, or should know 鈥� there won鈥檛 be 'catch and release' anymore.鈥�
The executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies has long opposed "catch and release" as well as the Flores Settlement Agreement. The settlement agreement limits the amount of time U.S. immigration officials can hold migrant children in certain detention centers and ensures proper living conditions for them while in the government鈥檚 custody. The Trump administration has 聽to dismantle the agreement so the government can detain migrant families indefinitely.
In a 2018 letter聽to the Department of Homeland Security, the Southern Poverty Law Center criticized聽efforts to end the Flores settlement. 鈥淭his attack on the well-settled rights guaranteed to children through the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement is an outgrowth of this white supremacist agenda and does direct harm to migrant children and families based on a constructed and imagined fear,鈥� wrote 人兽性交 staff attorney Gracie Willis.
Cuccinelli also addressed the administration鈥檚 proposed expansion of the 鈥減ublic charge鈥� rule. The expanded rule would deny green cards and some visas to immigrants who use 鈥� or whom immigration officials deem likely to use 鈥� federal assistance programs such as food stamps or Medicaid.
Cuccinelli defended the policy last month in an 聽by rephrasing the famed Emma Lazarus poem on the Statue of Liberty. 鈥淕ive me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge,鈥� he said. The policy is set to go into effect Oct. 15.
The Center for Immigration Studies advocated聽for a 鈥減ublic charge鈥� policy in a 2016 wish list it published on its website.
The center聽is the go-to think tank for the anti-immigrant movement. The group churns out dubious research and publications aimed at vilifying immigrants. It was founded in 1985 by the late John Tanton, a population and eugenics advocate who started the modern-day anti-immigrant movement. Tanton died in July, but his legacy聽endures through a network of anti-immigrant groups he helped create. These groups helped lay the groundwork for immigration policies coming out of the Trump administration.
Several such hate group alumni are now employed at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security that handles immigration matters, including applications for citizenship, visas and asylum. Julie Kirchner, an ombudsman at the agency, previously was the executive director of the anti-immigrant hate group Federation for American Immigration Reform聽(FAIR), a sister organization of the Center for Immigration Studies. Robert Law, FAIR鈥檚 former government relations director, and Elizabeth Jacobs, a former FAIR lobbyist, have also joined USCIS as senior advisers.
Cuccinelli鈥檚 predecessor, Lee Francis Cissna, who stepped down as USCIS director in June, spoke聽at one of the center鈥檚 鈥淚mmigration Newsmaker鈥� events in August 2018. As director, Cissna changed the agency鈥檚 mission statement by removing the sentence about the United States being a 鈥� 鈥� and replaced it with one that stressed 鈥�, securing the homeland, and honoring our values.鈥� Other administration speakers have included James McHenry, director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, and Thomas Homan, a former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
As the center鈥檚 event unfolded Thursday at the National Press Club, FAIR has been having its annual media and networking event, 鈥淗old Their Feet to the Fire,鈥� at the Phoenix Park Hotel in Washington. Scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, the immigration-focused event was to bring together more than 70 radio talk-show hosts, anti-immigrant figures, lawmakers and law enforcement officials.
Cuccinelli 聽Wednesday at the FAIR event and did interviews with radio hosts broadcasting from the hotel.
Ronald Vitiello, then-acting director of ICE, attended聽last year鈥檚 FAIR event. During a radio broadcast there, Vitiello minimized the effects of the administration鈥檚 family separation policy, saying that 鈥渙nly 2,500 people were affected by that situation.鈥�
The same day that FAIR鈥檚 conference kicked off this week, a reported crowd of about 200 sheriffs participated in a 鈥淏adges and Angels鈥� event on Capitol Hill to discuss the impact of immigration on their communities. Multiple sheriffs attended the first day of Hold Their Feet to the Fire, 聽Bristol County, Massachusetts, Sheriff Tom Hodgson, who sits on FAIR鈥檚 board of advisers.
Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images
