Trump's Homeland Security pick: States can use 'war powers' to fight immigrants
Extremist immigration pick Ken Cuccinelli compared immigrants to the Taliban, ISIS, and Al Qaeda.
Ken Cuccinelli, the former Virginia attorney general who Trump recently selected for a senior position at the Department of Homeland Security, once called for states to invoke “war powers” against a so-called “invasion” of migrants.
“We’ve been being invaded for a long time,” Cuccinelli said in an October 2018 interview with Breitbart, the pro-Trump white supremacist site, while discussing immigration and migrants.
He then advocated for states to invoke “war powers” to stop migrants from coming to the United States.
“Because [states are] acting under war powers, there’s no due process. They can literally just line their National Guard up with, presumably with riot gear like they would if they had a civil disturbance and turn people back at the border.”
“You just point them back across the river and let them swim for it,” he added.
Cuccinelli cited authorizations for use of force against terrorist groups like the Taliban, ISIS, and Al Qaeda, implying that migrants coming to America to escape hardship, persecution and crime are in a similar category.
“When someone comes across your border without your permission, it’s an invasion. Their purpose here is to violate the border, to violate our sovereignty, for their own purposes. That’s an invasion.”
Cuccinelli’s rhetoric is in line with Trump’s and other white supremacists’, who often refer to migrants as being part of an invasion force. He compared immigrants to “rat families” and has argued against allowing birthright citizenship in the United States.
His appointment echoes previous Trump selections like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, who have been tasked with implementing Trump’s bigoted beliefs in policy and legislation.
Trump is a bigot with a vicious streak who wants more bigots with a vicious streak around him. Cuccinelli is a perfect, repulsive, fit.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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