Trump immigration official and white nationalist hero Ken Cuccinelli blames migrant father for drowning with daughter – live
Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of USCIS, made comment as administration faces criticism for failing to respond to influx of families at border
The supreme court just announced it will review the constitutionality of an Obama-era program that allows undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children get temporary deportation relief and work permits.
Trump ended the program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca), but the decision was challenged in several lawsuits. The program protected about 700,000 people known as “Dreamers.”
The judges who have blocked ending the program have said the administration could remedy the legal impasse by providing a detailed reasoning of why the program should be abolished. Instead, it has continued to combat the orders in court.
The fight over the young people protected by the program — the average age is around 24 — has been a fierce battle between Trump and Democrats, who largely defend the initiative.
Related: What is Daca and who are the Dreamers?
Related: Raised in America, now back in Mexico: ‘The country I loved kicked me out’
The acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an agency that deals with the administrative aspects of immigration, has blamed a migrant father for the drowning deaths captured in a widely circulated photo.
USCIS acting director, Ken Cuccinelli, blamed Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, 25, for the deaths of himself and his 23-month-old daughter, Valeria – as the Trump administration faces criticism for failing to respond to the influx of families approaching the border.
The reason we have tragedies like that on the border is because that father didn’t wait to go through the asylum process in the legal fashion and decided to cross the river and not only died but his daughter died tragically as well. Until we fix the attractions in our asylum system, people like that father and that child are going to continue to come through a dangerous trip.
Related: A young family left El Salvador for a better life. Their tragedy encapsulates the immigration crisis