How desperate does a person have to be not only to risk their own life, but the life of their child, to reach a destination? As the harsh realities of Trump’s new unprecedented asylum laws emerged in photos of a young father and his toddler who drowned trying to reach the safe shores of the United States sets in, response from the Trump team has been just as deplorable and disgusting as could be expected.
Ken Cuccinelli, head of citizenship service, blames migrant father for drowning deaths captured in photo https://t.co/y9eaA1RxTZ
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 28, 2019
Trump’s most recent hire, Ken Cuccinelli, who will head up the citizenship services department, is an immigration hardliner who appeals to the worst in Trump’s nature. In order to please his racist voting base, Trump has installed a heartless, soulless man to serve as arbiter of who deserves citizenship in our country, and his views on that recent photo proved what exactly it was Trump was looking for in a candidate for the position.
The Washington Post writes that:
‘Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said on CNN on Thursday night that a widely circulated photograph of a migrant father and his 23-month-old daughter who drowned on the banks of the Rio Grande was tragic, but that it was the father’s fault they died — and not the fault of U.S. asylum policy requiring migrants to wait in Mexico.’
Ken Cuccinelli immediately stands out in an Administration that values cruelty. What a despicable and heartless thing to say. https://t.co/veeaRKqsEt
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) June 28, 2019
One has to wonder where nuance, and even human empathy, has gotten lost for Trump’s lackeys. It’s almost as if he’s suggesting that this poor young father was fine where he and his child were and had no reason to make the attempt that he did other than to gleefully try to break the law. No parent puts their child, much less themselves, at such risk without a reason, but Trump’s new sycophant feeds into the heartlessness of his base, and so he will prove just what Trump wants for the office.
‘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.’
As the asylum officers union asks a court to end the Trump administration's policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico during their immigration hearing, acting director of @USCIS Ken Cuccinelli says "they’re in denial of reality." https://t.co/14hDw0rF2O pic.twitter.com/j4iyA9vxI8
— CNN (@CNN) June 28, 2019
It isn’t as if Trump didn’t have warning of who Cuccinelli was before this disgusting statement, either. In fact, Cuccinelli seemed to revel in the idea of having the power to force migrants to wait in impoverished and unsafe circumstances before in 2018.
NPR reports that:
‘Cuccinelli has advocated for denying citizenship to American-born children of parents living in the U.S. illegally. And he has argued that states should invoke “war powers” to turn away what he calls an “invasion” of migrants from Central America seeking asylum in the U.S.
‘”You don’t have to keep ’em,” Cuccinelli said in an interview with Breitbart radio last year. “No catch and release, no nothing. You just point ’em back across the river, and let ’em swim for it.”‘
Ken Cuccinelli in 2018: "You just point them back across the river and let them swim for it” #fridayfeeling #fridaythoughts #FridayMotivation https://t.co/lsrkXb2C42
— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) June 28, 2019
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