Notably, the interim head of the ICE at the end of the Trump administration did not sign the new labor agreement, which emerged during a period of bureaucratic turmoil. An interim ICE director, Tony Pham, abruptly resigned in late December. He was succeeded by Jonathan Fahey, who abruptly resigned on January 13.
Mr. Fahey was replaced by Tae D. Johnson, who did not sign the agreement. Instead, on the signature lines, Mr. Cuccinelli is identified “for the agency”, but without a title. Mr. Cuccinelli said it was appropriate for him to sign the agreement as deputy acting secretary, and he did so after obtaining guidance from the attorney general.
Before resigning, Fahey resisted for days efforts to strengthen the ICE union and eventually refused to sign the agreement, according to a senior homeland security official familiar with the matter.
The Trump administration tried in several ways to give Cuccinelli a senior leadership role in the Department of Homeland Security without going through Senate confirmation, but the legal legitimacy of his nomination for various positions was a recurring dispute.
In 2019, Mr. Trump tried to make Mr. Cuccinelli the acting head of the department’s Citizenship and Immigration Services agency. But in March 2020, a federal judge ruled that his appointment had been illegal, nullifying the policies he had made because he had no legal authority to hold the position. The Trump administration did not appeal this decision.
The administration also tried to make Mr. Cuccinelli number 2 in the department, giving him the title of senior official in the role of deputy secretary. In August, the Government Accountability Office issued an opinion that this appointment was also legally invalid, although it is not a court decision.
Mr. Cuccinelli has repeatedly pressured the ICE leadership to adopt tougher policies. Shortly after joining the Citizenship and Immigration Services, Mr. Cuccinelli pressured the agency to add new restrictions to the student visa program, which is under the authority of ICE and not the agency he was supposedly running at the time. His actions irritated other department officials and led to the intervention of Kevin K. McAleenan, a former acting secretary of internal security.