Lady Liberty, constructed in this case of paper-mâché, stands about 7-feet-tall or so in the corner of the office of Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It overlooks Massachusetts Avenue from floor-to-ceiling windows. It wasn’t a gift. It was meant to shame him. Protesters left it outside the agency’s headquarters last month after Cuccinelli reinterpreted the inscription at the Statue of Liberty’s base to align it with policy changes aimed at restricting legal immigration. Cuccinelli brought it upstairs, took a selfie, and tweeted it. “It’s our newest office decoration!” he wrote.

Twitter trolling

Like his boss, Cuccinelli has a knack for Twitter trolling. He’s also experienced at talking-head television — another skill that pays dividends with President Donald Trump. And he’s now emerging as the public face of the president’s hard-line immigration policies. The Department of Homeland Security under Trump is making massive changes to U.S. immigration policy. It is denying asylum claims by rendering ineligible anyone who came to the U.S.-Mexico border through a third country, tightening immigration benefits, and moving toward a merit-based system. The changes are thrilling Trump’s base and enraging opponents who say the U.S. is abandoning its humanitarian mission.

“The most important thing is that communication was part of the charge I got from the president, So, we just charge ahead. It’s probably the top policy of interest to the American people and it’s not going to change any time soon,” he said to the Associated Press. 

Massive changes

The Department of Homeland Security under Trump is making massive changes to U.S. immigration policy. It is denying asylum claims by rendering ineligible anyone who came to the U.S.-Mexico border through a third country, tightening immigration benefits, and moving toward a merit-based system. The changes are thrilling Trump’s base and enraging opponents who say the U.S. is abandoning its humanitarian mission. Cuccinelli took over USCIS, a part of Homeland Security, a few months ago, following a White House-orchestrated staff shakeup at the department that also felled then-Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. He replaced L. Francis Cissna, who changed the motto of USCIS to delete “nation of immigrants”. The agency manages green cards, benefits, naturalization, visas, and asylum. But the various Homeland Security immigration agencies tend to blend these days with the ever-changing leaders promoting Trump’s overall immigration agenda.

They all appeared together this week in Laredo, Texas, to tour tent courts where hundreds of migrants forced to wait in Mexico pleaded their asylum cases. Cuccinelli took the lead in talking to the media. He frequently comments on Twitter and TV about immigration subjects outside his agency. U.S. Customs and Border Protection acting head Mark Morgan, another frequent TV commenter, joked that no one knows the difference among them.

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“Which is a major problem in one sense, but it also gives us the opportunity to just address the issue and not have to create these buckets,” he said.

But Cuccinelli’s impact has been felt at his agency. There are reports of staff reassignments, asylum officers in tears over policy changes, and friction over increasing restrictions. Michael Knowles, an asylum officer and spokesman for the union, AFGE National CIS Council 119, said morale among asylum officers is very low. He said Cuccinelli has scolded them for approving too many initial screenings.

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“And it seemed like every administration — whether left, right or center — has supported our country’s asylum and refugee programs, because giving safe haven to the oppressed was always seen as the patriotic, American thing to do,” he said. “Until now.”

Despite the criticism, nearly 34,000 new U.S. citizens will be naturalized this week in more than 300 special ceremonies in celebration of Constitution Week. During 2018′s budget year, the agency naturalized than 756,000 people, a five-year high in new oaths of citizenship. Cuccinelli is proud of those figures. He talked in-depth about the challenges with asylum case backlogs. He says he does not view USCIS as an immigrant benefits agency, but rather a vetting agency.

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“That doesn’t mean we don’t offer benefits, but it does mean that our first obligation is to uphold the standards, including security standards,” he said.
 

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