Ken Cuccinelli, whom I style Ken The Knife, the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the number 2 official at DHS, can play Bureaucrat Game with the best and stick a shiv between the ribs of his opponents.  It is sad that it took this long for President Trump to get a senior official at DHS who supports his agenda, save Thomas Homan.  I have had criticism of both Homan and Cuccinelli, but both have done more for President Trump’s agenda than any of the failures he appointed as DHS Secretaries.

For artistic use of the bureaucratic stiletto, no one matches Ken The Knife, a true Sicilian.  And what is the event? 

Congress in the most recent budget required that DHS open a new and additional office, Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO), duplicating the work of the DHS Office of Inspector General, which is charged statutorily with investigating fraud, waste, abuse, and other misconduct by DHS employees and contractors, and which includes investigating claims, and I emphasize claims, of abuse by detained aliens. 

This new office is required to investigate allegations of immigration detainee abuse.  This also duplicates the work of the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL).  This new office could have been a potential problem for enforcement and detention of illegal aliens, as it was the plan, but Ken The Knife was able to shiv this potential problem and, to mix metaphors, strangle it in its bed.   Bravissimo!

The Trump administration has named a hardline former leader of an anti-immigration group to help set up a new role created by Congress to oversee complaints of civil rights violations in detention centers and help those affected by misconduct, according to an internal memo obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman was created in the most recent appropriations bill to “address issues that arise in DHS detention facilities” and remain independent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement or US Customs and Border Protection. The office will report directly to the secretary of Homeland Security.

Ken Cuccinelli, the controversial second-in-command at the Department of Homeland Security, appointed Julie Kirchner, former leader of FAIR, a group that advocated for policies that restrict immigration, to help set up the office, according to the memo. Cuccinelli also tapped Tracy Short — a former top ICE official who signed memos during the Trump administration to stop the agency from granting reprieves for certain immigrants facing deportation — to also help figure out the plans for the office.

[The Ex-Leader Of An Anti-Immigration Group Is Creating The Office In Charge Of Fielding Civil Rights Complaints From Detainees, Hamed Aleaziz, Buzz Feed,  January 30, 2020]

The plan by supporters of illegal immigration was to have the OIDO serve as a battering ram for the illegal immigration lobby and professional grievance mongers in the so-called civil rights movement.  These groups routinely make false allegations of abuse and misconduct against DHS employees and components, and those allegations are routinely found to be without merit.

Julie Kirchner, Stiletto For Ken The Knife

Ken The Knife apparently knows this, so he appointed someone who has his and President Trump’s back, unlike other appointees, such as Kirstjen Nielsen and Kevin McAleenan.  This is bureaucrat game, appointing your people to do what you want them to do, not Deep State saboteurs.

Now, some may point out that I have written against Tracy Short before.  I stand by my criticisms of Short.  However, I have been contacted by patriots in ICE and assured that Short is with the program, though my source has no explanation for Office of the Principal Legal Advisor’s (OPLA) behavior in the field.  Time will tell if Short will help keep OIDO from becoming an outpost for the ACLU and ethnic lobby types.  One hopes so.

Let’s hope Kirchner will do her duty.  If she needs any help, certain people are available.  It is sad though that Ken The Knife still hasn’t taken the same action in the area of personnel against other Deep State saboteurs, like the Dirty 19.