Any policies Cuccinelli put in place are now void, according to a court ruling.
A federal judge ruled on Sunday that Ken Cuccinelli was unlawfully installed as the acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
President Donald Trump’s appointment of Cuccinelli, who also serves as the acting deputy secretary of the Homeland Security Department, violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss declared in his 55-page decision.
Only an official designated as “first assistant,” as defined by the FVRA, can assume the role of acting USCIS director when the vacancy arises, according to the ruling. Cuccinelli initially was appointed to the new position of principal deputy director. At the same time, the USCIS order of succession was revised to include the principal deputy director as a first assistant. Both of these changes occurred after the vacancy had arisen. Continue reading.
Children at an elementary school in California recite the Pledge of Allegiance, September 2010. Credit: Sandy Huffaker, Getty Images
In the past two years, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has arrested people leaving a church hypothermia shelter, a father who had just dropped his daughter off at school, and a mother of young children who was paying a traffic fine. These stories, as well as those of the more than 2,600 children taken from their parents under the Trump administration’s family separation policy, are heartbreaking.
As these stories circulate, ICE’s increasingly callous actions and the Trump administration’s immigration policies more broadly have come under criticism and scrutiny. In the final weeks of the 2018 election, however, President Donald Trump continued to hammer anti-immigrant rhetoric in speeches across the country and propose fear-based immigration policies. The administration has made multiple attempts—at least one of which has been placed on hold by a federal court—to close the southern border to people from Central American countries seeking asylum in the United States. And just this past weekend, U.S. Border Patrol agents fired tear gasat a group of asylum seekers—including mothers and small children—near the San Ysidro port of entry.
This column outlines research showing that Trump’s rhetoric and policy actions on immigration for the past two years have had measurable negative effects for children and families across the country.
Administration officials have pointed to “the law” as the reason why undocumented children are being separated from their parents. But there’s no such law. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)
“Obama separated . . . . . . . . children from parents, as did Bush etc., because that is the policy and law. I tried to keep them together but the problem is, when you do that, vast numbers of additional people storm the Border. So with Obama seperation is fine, but with Trump it’s not. Fake 60 Minutes!”
— President Trump, in a pair of tweets, Nov. 25, 2018
“Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries.”
The following article by Dan Balz and Scott Clement was posted on the Washington Post website July 6, 2018:
Protesters marched in Washington, D.C., June 30 as part of hundreds of demonstrations across the U.S. to protest new immigration policies. (Video: Allie Caren, Alice Li, Meg Kelly/Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Post)
Americans overwhelmingly oppose the Trump administration’s now-rescinded policy of separating immigrant children from their parents, and smaller majorities also disagree with the president’s call to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and to restrict legal immigration by limiting citizens from bringing parents and siblings to this country, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll.
On other aspects of the immigration debate, however, a more mixed picture emerges. Americans are more closely divided on the question of whether enough is being done to prevent illegal immigration and whether the country has gone too far in welcoming immigrants. Also, more people say they trust President Trump than congressional Democrats to deal with the issue of border security. The support for Trump on the border-security issue is especially evident in congressional districts considered key battlegrounds in this fall’s midterm elections. Continue reading “Most Americans oppose key parts of Trump immigration plans, including wall, limits on citizens bringing family to U.S., poll says”
The following article by Andrew L. Seidel was posted on the ThinkProgress website June 19, 2018:
“Jeff Sessions [will] go out the same day I teach him something and he’ll do it on camera.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and fellow members of Pres. Trump’s cabinet bow their heads in prayer during an event to mark the National Day of Prayer in the Rose Garden at the White House May 3, 2018. Credit: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images
Attorney General Jeff Sessions ignited a public theological debate last week when he used the Bible, specifically Romans 13, to justify the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S. border. He likely took his cues from the White House Bible Study (WHBS), a weekly Bible study for members of the president’s cabinet organized by Ralph Drollinger of Capitol Ministries.
According to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, significant staff time and resources go into coordinating the Bible study every week. Documents also show that Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, who defended the policy during a press conference Monday, is heavily involved with the WHBS. In fact, she’s the only cabinet official whose direct email address appears on the electronic invitations to the WHBS.
The following article by Luis Sanchez was posted on theHill website June 16, 2018:
Medical experts are cautioning that there are long-term health risks for migrant children who are separated from their parents, including “irreparable harm” to those children’s lifelong development.
Dean Phillips, candidate for Congress in Minnesota’s Third Congressional District, released the following statement on the Congressional inaction in the face of the Trump Administration’s separation of children from their parents:
“When kids are slaughtered in schools, Erik Paulsen offers thoughts and prayers. When kids are separated from their parents, Erik Paulsen ‘hopes’ the Administration will reverse its policies. Erik Paulsen is a member of Congress. He can pass either HR 3923 or HR 5950 or draft a bill to cease the practice NOW. We can’t wait until January,” said Dean Phillips. “This is yet another example of Erik Paulsen’s lack of leadership and action on important issues facing our country, even as Republicans and Democrats appear to be united in moral outrage.”
“Hope won’t end the practice of children being separated from their parents. Action is needed,” concluded Phillips.
The following article by Seung Min Kim was posted on the Washington Post website May 27, 2018:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on May 7, that the Justice Dept. will begin prosecuting every person who illegally crosses the Southwest border. (The Washington Post)
President Trump’s attempt to blame Democrats for separating migrant families at the border is renewing a political uproar over immigration, an issue that has challenged Trump throughout his presidency and threatens to grow more heated as he imposes more restrictions to stem the flow of illegal immigration.
In one of several misleading tweets during the holiday weekend, Trump pushed Democrats to change a “horrible law” that the president said mandated separating children from parents who enter the country illegally. But there is no law specifically requiring the government to take such action, and it’s also the policies of his own administration that have caused the family separation that advocacy groups and Democrats say is a crisis. Continue reading “Trump is blaming Democrats for separating migrant families at the border. Here’s why this isn’t a surprise.”
The following article by Meagan Flynn and Avi Selk was posted on the Washington Post website March 13, 2018:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions scolded Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who warned the city of a possible ICE raid last month. (Reuters)
A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has resigned over what he described as “false” and “misleading” statements made by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and ICE acting director Thomas D. Homan.
James Schwab worked out of the agency’s San Francisco office until he abruptly quit last week. He said he had been told to “deflect” questions about the Oakland, Calif., mayor’s interference with an ICE raid last month and to refer reporters to statements from Sessions and Homan that suggested that hundreds of “criminals” (“criminal aliens,” Homan called them) escaped capture in Northern California because the mayor tipped them off. Continue reading “ICE spokesman resigns, citing fabrications by agency chief, Sessions about California immigrant arrests”
Any policies Cuccinelli put in place are now void, according to a court ruling.
