A U.S. federal judge on Sunday ruled that Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) was unlawfully selected as acting director. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss said Cuccinelli was not legally the first assistant to the director of USCIS under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FVRA) and could not be named acting director.“…The ‘first assistant’ to the vacant office automatically serves as the acting official when a vacancy arises.”BREAKING: Federal judge declares that @HomelandKen was unlawfully installed as Acting Director of @USCIS. Policies he authorized are void. pic.twitter.com/Nb2Q7gBLlD— Bradley Jenkins (@bradkjenkins) March 1, 2020According to court documents, on June 1, 2019, Lee Francis Cissna, the then Senate-confirmed director of USCIS, resigned and according to FVRA his “first assistant,” then Deputy Director Mark Koumans, was expected to automatically assume the post of acting director.Nine days after Cissna’s resignation, the then acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kevin McAleenan, appointed Cuccinelli “to serve as the principal deputy director of USCIS” — a position that court documents say did not exist before Cuccinelli’s appointment.McAleenan revised USCIS’s order of succession, designating the newly created position of principal deputy director as “the first assistant and most senior successor to the director of USCIS.”These two changes, documents show, took place after Cissna’s resignation, and allowed Cuccinelli to jump over Koumans to become USCIS acting director.Acting Secretary McAleenan specified that Cuccinelli’s appointment as principal deputy director was to remain in effect until the appointment of a director of USCIS by the president of the United States, or “the express revocation of this appointment.”McAleenan then said the revised order of succession would “terminate automatically” upon the appointment of a new director of USCIS by President Donald Trump.”In other words, as soon as the vacant office is filled, “the status quo will be restored,” court documents show.VOA sent USCIS a request for comment but has not received a response.
Cuccinelli, a conservative lawmaker known for his hard-line immigration views, is a former Virginia attorney general. Trump asked him to lead the agency that is tasked with administering the nation’s legal immigration system.USCIS is an agency of 19,000 employees and contractors.Cuccinelli also serves as U.S. Homeland Security Department deputy secretary.
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