Cuccinelli Won’t Say If ICE’ll Separate Undocumented Families In Upcoming Raids

WARRENTON, VA -- NOVEMBER 4: Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli II is joined by Senator Mark Rubio (R-FL) as the hours to voting dwindle in Warrenton, Virginia, on Monday, November 4, 2013. (... WARRENTON, VA -- NOVEMBER 4: Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli II is joined by Senator Mark Rubio (R-FL) as the hours to voting dwindle in Warrenton, Virginia, on Monday, November 4, 2013. (Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post via Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

US Citizenship and Immigration Services acting director Ken Cuccinelli wouldn’t say on Sunday whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will separate undocumented immigrants from their children in the upcoming raids like the Department of Homeland Security did last year.

During CNN’s “State of the Union,” reporter Jake Tapper asked Cuccinelli, “Can you guarantee that no parents will be separated from their children, excluding the violent criminals that we were talking about earlier, can you guarantee no parents will be separated from children in the raids?”

The USCIS acting director was evasive.

“In the same way I wasn’t willing to talk about operational details, that would an operational detail that I’m not gonna comment on,” he responded. “There are a million people, including families, with removal orders. The priority remains for ICE to get at criminals.”

When Tapper asked how pledging not to separate undocumented parents from their kids was revealing an “operation detail,” Cuccinelli began talking about “loopholes.”

“I’m not gonna say yes or no to anything like that because then certain people out there can write themselves off the list or find a way to play a loophole and the loopholes in our legal system are what we’ve been screaming to be fixed,” he said.

He went on to blame Congress for “not dealing with the problems on a legislative level” and holding so-called “show hearings” instead.

President Donald Trump said the mass raids would begin on Sunday.

Watch Cuccinelli below:

Latest News
73
Show Comments

Notable Replies

  1. Ken Cuccinelli wouldn’t say on Sunday whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will separate undocumented immigrants from their children

    IF… the Democrats had kicked in more money he would be able to keep families together, but seeing as how they won’t see fit to give in to tRump, he will be forced to separate… and the Dems will be to blame.

  2. Avatar for pshah pshah says:

    Judging by Trump’s racist screed this morning and the fact they’ve already separated families at the border, the answer is obvious.

    These poor children are going to grow up into scarred adults through no fault of their own, and it’ll be just another crisis Trump will have inflicted on America for absolutely no reason except sheer malevolence. For our (Republicans) moral cowardice, we will pay the price for decades.

  3. Has France requested us to ship her back yet?

    download

  4. The USCIS acting director was evasive.

    Which means yes, yes and hell yes. Cuccinelli doesn’t need to be evasive, his boss wants him to do this, and Cuccinelli’s basic attitude towards brown immigrants supports this.

    To bad he’s not old enough to remember when Italians weren’t White and weren’t the chosen immigrants…

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

67 more replies

Participants

Avatar for discobot Avatar for bluedevil Avatar for paulw Avatar for playitagainrowlf Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for tigersharktoo Avatar for sandyh Avatar for tecmage Avatar for lastroth Avatar for greylady Avatar for esva Avatar for pshah Avatar for southerndem Avatar for caltg Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for tiowally Avatar for lisaport Avatar for tindalos Avatar for drtv Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for filmknight Avatar for rucleare Avatar for n_b Avatar for kovie

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: