Ken Cuccinelli: Trump administration will succeed on immigration if 'the courts don't get in our way'
Acting USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli says the country will be successful on immigration if the courts don't get in the White House's way, and if Congress finally gets involved.
If the U.S. court system doesn't interfere with White House policy, the Trump administration will expand on their current success and continue to make strides with immigration reform, said Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services, on "Fox & Friends" Thursday
"I feel like we've been successful under [Trump's] leadership," he said. "The president's leadership is a critical element here that's allowing us to succeed over, say, the last six months. And if the courts don't get in our way, we'll continue to succeed... But long-term change won't come until Congress engages and helps us fix some of these loopholes."
Cuccinelli said law enforcement officers all over America are being put at risk due to failures in immigration policy and pushed for Congress to produce legislation to fix the problem once and for all.
"It affects our security. It affects our safety," he said. "I'm a great supporter of law enforcement. And law enforcement agencies all over this country deal with the downside of the failure of our immigration system."
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"These are solvable problems... But it won't happen if Congress won't engage," Cuccinelli added. "A lot of those people in Congress have done nothing. They complained, but they've done nothing to solve the problem. And we've laid out solutions from experts for months and years and, yet, they ignore it, they ignore it, they ignore it."
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Cuccinelli also weighed in on the Democratic presidential debates and said most Americans don't believe in giving federal benefits to illegal immigrants and want to see the current laws enforced.
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"You mentioned health care for illegal aliens. That is not something [Democrats] have shied away from in the past, by my observation," he said.
"And ordinary Americans find [Democratic] positions, in terms of trying to get the support of the extreme left, shocking. And I can't imagine politically that will be helpful."