Cuccinelli: ‘Publicity-Driven’ Immigration Enforcement Efforts Have Been ‘Counterproductive’

On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli said that the “sort of publicity-driven efforts, especially in the first part of the Trump administration, under Secretary Noem, were counterproductive and shouldn’t have happened.” He also stated that there has been “a lot” of restoring of relationships between ICE and communities under Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s tenure without all of the media attention.

Cucinelli said that the performance of ICE is unfairly reported on, but “I concede that the sort of publicity-driven efforts, especially in the first part of the Trump administration, under Secretary Noem, were counterproductive and shouldn’t have happened. They shouldn’t be driven that way.”

He continued, “I agree with the notion that law enforcement serves best when it has better or at least less bad relations with communities. And you’ve seen a lot of that restored under Secretary Mullin without all the press and the hoopla and all the rest surrounding the actual day-to-day work of ERO agents in ICE, which is challenging work in the best of times, and when it becomes more political hot-button, it becomes more dangerous for everybody, including those agents and officers.”

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