Judge: Interim immigration official unlawfully named
A federal judge has ruled Ken Cuccinelli was unlawfully appointed to lead the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency and, as a result, lacked authority to give asylum-seekers less time to prepare for initial screening interviews.
Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general and an immigration hardliner, was named to a new position of “principal deputy director” in June, which immediately made him acting director because Lee Francis Cissna had just resigned. The agency grants green cards and visas and oversees asylum officers.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington found Cuccinelli’s appointment violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, a 1998 law governing who is eligible to lead federal agencies in an acting capacity. The impact of the ruling wasn’t immediately clear.
The ruling issued Sunday was at odds with President Donald Trump’s penchant for temporary appointments. At Homeland Security, Chad Wolf is acting secretary, and the heads of Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizenship and Immigration Services are also in acting roles.
The judge wrote that Cuccinelli didn’t qualify for exceptions for officials who won Senate approval for other positions or spent 90 days in the previous year at the agency.
The administration’s reading of the law “would decimate this carefully crafted framework,” Moss wrote in his 55-page ruling. “The President would be relieved of responsibility and accountability for selecting acting officials, and the universe of those eligible to serve in an acting capacity would be vastly expanded.”
Moss, an appointee of President Barack Obama, set aside a Cuccinelli directive to give asylum-seekers less time to consult attorneys before an initial screening interview, but his decision applies only to the five Hondurans who sued.