Ken Cuccinelli’s elevation to the Acting Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will give him enormous power. He’s expected to be in charge of immigration issues while the Acting DHS Secretary, Chad Wolf is expected to concentrate on other DHS components and issues, but Cuccinelli will also have to deal with the continuing insubordination and sabotage by many bureaucrats in DHS, especially those in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Acting Deputy Secretary Cuccinelli will have to act to prevent more sabotage and insubordination. The first thing he should do is fire the Dirty 19 HSI Agents who signed an Open Letter [PDF] attacking ICE. [Seeking A Split From ICE, Some Agents Say Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Hurts Investigations And Morale, by Nick Miroff, WaPo, June 28, 2018]

But here is a panoply of sabotage and Resistance by the Deep State in DHS.

First, ICE SVU continues to ignore and denigrate its immigration enforcement responsibilities.

A local ICE official is pushing back against growing criticism of the agency’s immigration crackdowns under President Donald Trump’s administration. Albert Carter, acting field office director for ICE’s Phoenix office of enforcement and removal operations, said the agency does not target people indiscriminately. Rather, the agency uses its limited resources to target individuals who pose the greatest threat to public safety and border security, Carter said. “First and foremost, ICE does not conduct raids,” Carter said. “ICE conducts targeted enforcement operations. Raid implies to me that we are just out willy-nilly picking up individuals. That is not the case.” Carter made the comments to local reporters recently in support of an open letter defending the agency’s operations. The letter signed by ICE field office directors was posted on ICE’s website on Sept. 12. “Across the country, a national debate about current and future U.S. immigration policy is growing louder by the day,'” the letter states. It says as field office directors who oversee the offices that enforce immigration laws within the U.S., “we want to set the record straight.” [ICE Doesn’t Conduct ‘Raids,’ Phoenix Field Director Says. But Data Shows A Different Focus, Critics Say, by Daniel González, Arizona Republic, October 7, 2019]

And the leftist reporter is correct: in one sense, Acting Field Office Director Carter is insubordinate. President Trump wants raids, but ICE SVU does not. It is bad optics, or some excuse.

Immigration experts, however, said the memo contradicts Trump’s get tough on illegal immigration rhetoric. The letter is also contradicted by ICE’s own data, which shows that under the Trump administration, immigration arrests have soared and become less targeted compared with the final years of the Obama administration.

But the leftist reporter is wrong in saying ICE SVU is doing raids. While there have been a few employment raids, those have been few and far between, and mostly for show. There has been no increase in raids, and precious little increase in interior enforcement.

And as if on cue, ICE SVU again denies it does immigration enforcement at all:

A large, armored vehicle belonging to the Department of Homeland Security startled residents in Queens, New York City, on Wednesday as authorities used it to conduct an arrest, according to local news outlets. A federal source who spoke to Spectrum News NY1 on the condition of anonymity said the Special Response Team, a division within Immigration and Customs Enforcement, used the military-style vehicle, commonly known as a BearCat, for a criminal arrest in Ridgewood. The operation “did not involve an immigration issue,” the source added. [New Yorkers Alarmed After ICE Uses Military Vehicle In Criminal Arrest, HuffPo/YahooNews, November 7, 2019]

And ICE SVU is quite proud of their Robocop play toys and not enforcing immigration law:

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) regularly uses Special Response teams (SRT) when executing high risk criminal arrest warrants. The SRT is similar to a local SWAT. This was not an immigration enforcement action. https://t.co/V3lXJpcZ20 — ICE (@ICEgov) November 7, 2019

And immigration enforcement is only an afterthought as only criminals and terrorists are in ICE SVU’s sights, the return of the Morton Memos.

ERO's mission is to identify, arrest, & remove aliens who present a danger to national security or are a risk to public safety, as well as those who enter the US illegally or otherwise undermine the integrity of our immigration laws https://t.co/sQQAABLtQd pic.twitter.com/9kAJ1Rj5BC — ICE (@ICEgov) November 13, 2019

And there is something even closer to Acting Deputy Secretary Cuccinelli, more saboteurs at USCIS.

“This is another end run around proper procedures by the Trump administration,” said one USCIS official. “Wolf will delegate all immigration matters to Cuccinelli as acting deputy secretary, thereby giving him authority over all DHS immigration matters…” Asylum officers at USCIS, who often felt they were targeted by Cuccinelli, said it appeared he was not satisfied with his position as acting director of the agency. “He never appeared to really want the USCIS job to begin with, always referencing ICE and CBP and their good work, talking about how USCIS is a vetting organization and not a benefits organization,” said one asylum officer. “He was always interviewing for DHS. That was always the goal.” Another officer told BuzzFeed News that they hoped “Cuccinelli will honor the laws and regulations of the larger department with care that has been noticeably lacking during his tenure at USCIS.” [An Immigration Hardliner Was Just Elevated To The No. 2 Position In Trump’s Homeland Security Department, by Hamed Aleaziz, BuzzFeed, November 13, 2019]

Furthermore, it is now confirmed that Acting Secretary Elaine Duke was actively sabotaging the DACA repeal.

Written by then-acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke, who reportedly had grave misgivings about lifting the deportation protections, the memo relied solely on arguments from then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions about DACA’s illegality. [Five Things To Watch At Supreme Court’s DACA Hearings, by John Kruzel And Rafael Bernal, The Hill, November 12, 2019]

And instead of doing immigration work in Arizona, which is overrun by illegal aliens, ICE SVU continues to be the sex police, arresting Americans for crimes, which however heinous, aren’t even being charged in Federal court.

A Prescott Valley resident was sentenced Friday to nearly 50 years imprisonment by the Superior Court of Yavapai County on local charges related to child exploitation following a joint investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Prescott Valley Police Department. According to court documents, David Speer Sr., 71, will be required to serve the entirety of his sentence without the possibility of parole. Speer was convicted of 24 counts of violations of Arizona State law related to child exploitation, specifically, 10 counts of production and possession of child pornography, 10 counts of voyeurism, four counts of child molestation and three counts of ongoing child sexual abuse. Speer’s guilty plea and sentencing was the same date, Nov. 8. [Northern Arizona Man Sentenced To 48 Years For Various Charges Related To Child Pornography, ICE Press Release, November 15, 2019]

And Deep State Saboteur ICE SVU Special Agent-in-Charge Scott Brown put child porn consumers on notice, but not illegal aliens.

“No crime impacts law enforcement agents as deeply as the abuse of an innocent child by the people he or she trusts the most,” said Scott Brown, special agent in charge for HSI Phoenix. “HSI hereby puts child predators on notice: there is no refuge for child sexual predators who believe they can pursue their perverse behavior with impunity; they cannot escape justice and there will be serious consequences for their heinous actions.”

Acting Deputy Secretary Cuccinelli needs to put saboteurs like Scott Brown, one of the Dirty 19, on notice, get with the program of immigration enforcement, or get out. Personnel issues have been the bane of the Trump Administration, and Cuccinelli must act to save this administration.