Senior Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli said Monday he doesn’t think President Trump sent the wrong message by giving his first prison commutation to a man who was one of the nation’s largest employers of illegal immigrants.
The acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a hardliner on immigration policy, said the Trump administration’s message is one of toughness, not leniency, after raids this month of seven food processing plants in Mississippi resulted in 680 arrests.
“I don’t think so,” Cuccinelli said, regarding whether the 2017 release of Sholom Rubashkin sent the wrong message. The former Iowa meatpacking executive was seven years into a 27-year sentence. “The president does those one person at a time.”
“I think what you saw ICE do this week in enforcing the law meaningfully with seven operations across the state of Mississippi…. is a growth for ICE from the previous year,” Cuccinelli said. “Their enforcement efforts are up, and I think you can expect to see more of that as part of the message from this administration: We are going to enforce the law.”
Rubashkin’s release disillusioned many anti-illegal immigration advocates, who argued it was an example of influence-peddling. The raid on Rubashkin’s business in May 2008, resulting in 389 arrests, was the largest in U.S. history when it happened.
“The government went in on just one of the shifts. There were two or three shifts,” said Robert Teig, a former assistant U.S. attorney involved in prosecuting Rubashkin. “The rest of the illegal workforce didn’t show up after that and that’s what caused the business to fail. He built his business on the back of illegal immigrants.”
Trump released Rubashkin after a lunch with longtime Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who implored Trump to act. Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner reportedly favored release of Rubashkin, an Orthodox Jew. Many politicians, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, had endorsed clemency, arguing the length of the sentence was excessive.
Prosecutors said at sentencing that Rubashkin was found to have “cheated a bank and others out of a staggering amount of money — more than $26 million.” His conviction on 86 federal counts was upheld on appeal. Prosecutors did not pursue immigration charges, focusing on the more serious financial crimes.
Cuccinelli, a supporter of the recent immigration raids, took his job in June as the White House sought a more aggressive administrative approach toward immigration policy. He spoke Monday as he rolled out a new standard that will restrict admission of and visa renewals for immigrants who use public assistance.
