A last-minute deal that Trump officials signed with the immigration and customs officers union that could have undermined radical policy changes was rejected by the Biden administration.
The change on Tuesday sets the stage for a possible confrontation between President Joe Biden and the ICE union, which endorsed former President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.
Earlier this month, a whistleblower claimed that Ken Cuccinelli, a senior official in the Trump administration, had abused his authority by entering into a set of agreements that gave the union “extraordinary powers and benefits” and allowed “to delay policy changes indefinitely. immigration and practices. ”
On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security notified the ICE union; determined that one of the agreements “was not negotiated in the interests of DHS and was disapproved because it does not comply with applicable law,” an agency spokesman said in a statement.
“The Department’s Human Capital Director notified ICE and the union in writing today that the proposed agreement has been disapproved,” added the spokesman. “DHS will make political decisions according to the law and based on what is best for national security, public protection and border security, while upholding our nation’s values.”
According to DHS, employees have 30 days to approve or disapprove the agreement after it is signed.
Cuccinelli, the controversial acting deputy secretary, signed a series of agreements that required DHS to give local jurisdictions six months to review and submit comments on changes to immigration policy. The state of Texas, which signed one of the agreements, ended up suing DHS over Biden’s deportation moratorium, claiming it violated the contract.
A union representative did not immediately return a request for comment. But Cuccinelli told the New York Times earlier this month, “The deal is completely legal and appropriate, or we wouldn’t have done it.”
In its first week, the Biden government issued new priorities for ICE officials as of February 1, including that they should focus on immigrants who were considered a threat to national security, were arrested at the border after November 1, 2020. , or were was convicted of a felony.
“This abuse of authority is shocking,” said the letter from the whistleblower’s lawyer, David Seide. “When the evidence is collected – the moment of the last second of the agreements, his excessive transmission of power and benefits, his supposed invulnerability and Mr. Cuccinelli’s extraordinary involvement – it is clear that they are another example of the previous government’s effort in its hourly decline to consolidate a legacy at the taxpayer’s expense. “