Horrific detention conditions for illegal immigrants at the southern border “will go on until Congress show signs of passing laws,” acting director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services office Ken Cuccinelli said Sunday.
In an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” Cuccinelli said the massive spike in migrants at the border will only end when “we stop attracting people here illegally.”
According to Cuccinelli, illegal entries at El Paso, Texas, has “gone in that sector of the border from the sixth busiest sector at the end of 2018 to number two in literally a matter of months.”
“This is going to end when we stop attracting people here illegally,” Cuccinelli said. “This will go on until Congress show signs of passing laws.”
He also defended the President Donald Trump-ordered roundup of illegal immigrants.
“Over a million people in this country [who]… are here illegally have gone through extensive due process, have removal orders and haven't left,” he said.
In a separate interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” he said the roundup “priority” would largely target criminals — and took a veiled swipe at New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and sanctuary cities.
“It is interesting to hear a mayor of a major city, America's biggest, say, ‘well this is what I would like to see done’ [and] at the same time, people in his city and others who want a sanctuary city are not cooperating with that exact effort,” he said.
“That is still ICE’s priority, and ICE is protecting Americans by removing those criminals from this country while you've got sanctuary cities and states that are protecting the criminals by not cooperating with ICE.”
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