A U.S. judge on Sunday ruled the Trump administration did not act lawfully when it named a former Virginia attorney general as the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and invalidated some new asylum directives.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington ruled Ken Cuccinelliâs appointment violated a 1998 law governing how vacancies in senior government positions may be filled until the U.S. Senate confirms a new permanent choice.
Moss said Cuccinelliâs appointment would relieve the president âof responsibility and accountability for selecting acting officialsâ and could essentially allow the executive brand to fill many senior jobs âwith nearly anyoneâ by simply creating a new position after a vacancy.
Last year five Honduran asylum seekers and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services sued to challenge the lawfulness of asylum directives issued under Cuccinelli.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman Heather Swift said in an e-mail âwe obviously disagree with the courtâs opinion and are looking more closely at it.â The Justice Department did not immediately comment.
Mossâ ruling said only the five asylum seekers who sued were entitled to new proceedings before USCIS and he declined to extend relief to others who had been denied asylum or ordered removed under Cuccinelliâs directives.
Cuccinelli, who is performing the duties of deputy director of DHS, assumed the USCIS job as acting director through a series of moves.
After USCIS director L. Francis Cissna resigned in June 2019, his deputy director, Mark Koumans, assumed the post as director, as required under law, Moss said.
DHSâs acting head Kevin McAleenan then appointed Cuccinelli to serve in the newly created position as principal deputy USCIS director.
McAleenan, who has since resigned, also revised the order of succession at USCIS to place Cuccinelliâs job ahead of Koumans, allowing Cuccinelli to take over as acting director.
Three weeks after taking office, Cuccinelli issued a revised policy for scheduling credible-fear interviews in expedited removal proceedings.
Cuccinelliâs directive reduced time for asylum seekers to consult with others before their credible-fear interviews from 48 or 72 hours to âone full calendar day from the date of arrival at a detention facilityâ and prohibited asylum officers from granting asylum seekers extensions to prepare âexcept in the most extraordinary of circumstances.â
John Lewis, senior counsel at Washington-based advocacy group Democracy Forward, said the âdecision raises serious questions about the lawfulness of other actions Cuccinelli has undertaken â or may yet undertake â and we and others will be looking at them closely.â
Much of DHS is still being run by acting officials, including the top person, chief of staff, general counsel, as is the top official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Grant McCool)