Washington, Thirteen organizations of minorities and liberal groups today sent a letter to the Senate in which it expresses its “deep concern” for the nomination of Ken Cuccinelli as the new director of Citizenship and Immigration Services.
President Donald Trump proposed Cucinelli as director of the agency, known by its acronym in English USCIS, which handles legal immigration and the adjudication of applications for citizenship, legal residence visas and tourism.
The Center for American Progress, along with twelve other organizations, sent a letter to the president of the Senate Judiciary Committee noting “Cucinelli’s long history in support of anti-immigration policies.”
According to the letter, Cuccinelli, who was the Attorney General of the state of Virginia, “has promoted opinions and policies against immigrants that contradict the important task that would be entrusted to him as director of USCIS.”
Those policies, according to the signatories, “explain why he was chosen by the Trump government for this position, and why he is specifically disqualified for confirmation.”
The letter cited several situations in which, according to the signatories, Cucinalli’s anti-immigrant policies were evident, including his statements when a caravan of Central American migrants headed towards the southern border of the country.
Cuccinelli then compared the situation with a war “because for a long time we have been invaded and that is why the border states clearly qualify to use force, because they act under the authorizations of war.”
When he was a senator in Virginia in 2008, Cuccinelli led a campaign for the convening of a constitutional convention amending the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, eliminating the clause that grants citizenship to every person born in the country.
The signatories also recalled that in 2008, Cuccinelli filed a motion in the Virginia Senate that would have allowed an employer to fire an employee who did not speak English on the job site, depriving the employee of their unemployment benefits.
“Cuccinelli has spent his career promoting anti-immigrant policies and spreading dehumanizing rhetoric,” the letter said.
Signatories include the United States Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the American-Arab Committee against Discrimination; and the Center for Constitutional Rights. (EFEUSA)
