The new director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has been on the job for less than a month and he's already threatening his own employees according to a new report from Buzzfeed News.
Buzzfeed obtained an email addressed to agency staff that pressured them to stop accepting the claims of asylum seekers who say they fear for their lives.
“Under our abused immigration system if an alien comes to the United States and claims a fear of return the alien is entitled to a credible fear screening by USCIS and a hearing by an immigration judge,” Cuccinelli wrote to USCIS staffers.
He told staffers that USCIS needed to do "our part to help stem the crisis and better secure the homeland."
"Asylum officers, you took an oath to support and defend the constitution of the United States. As a public servant your role as an asylum officer requires faithful application of the law."
You wouldn't know it from Cuccinelli's language, but he is referring to human beings. Humans are making the dangerous journey to America to escape violence, not "aliens." And most of them are women and children or families.
There are good reasons why Cuccinelli's campaigns for a Senate seat and governorship both failed. He's a despicable creature who ran racist campaigns there were far too ugly for the residents of Virginia; the former capital of the Confederacy. But that is why Trump hired him, isn't it?
The cruelty is the point.
One DHS official said the email was “insane” while former officials said the email was clearly a threat.
“I read this only in one way — a threat. A threat that asylum officers will be blamed by their new boss for the repeated failures of the Trump administration,” Ur Jaddou, a former chief counsel at the agency told BuzzFeed News. “This is an unbelievable threat and not something a director would normally ever send.”
Our immigration system was not exactly in the best shape when Trump arrived, but it will certainly be in tatters when he's gone. But so will almost every other federal agency.
And the trains aren't even running on time.