USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna, Announces Resignation

New developments in the world of immigration have just emerged. The director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), L. Francis Cissna, has been forced to resign.

Cissna has served under the Trump administration since October 2017. During his tenure, Cissna oversaw major policy changes within the agency, including the President’s travel ban, the court’s rebuke of the travel ban, the termination of the DACA program, and the Trump administration’s efforts to limit asylum processing for Central Americans.

Cissna’s resignation comes just one month shy of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s resignation from the Department of Homeland Security. These resignations signal major changes that are to come as the Trump administration gets tougher on immigration.

Cissna will be departing the agency on June 1^st and the President will nominate a new director prior to his departure. The White House has been rumored to be vetting Ken Cuccinelli, to replace Cissna. Cuccinelli served as the Attorney General of Virginia from 2010 to 2014. He has been well known for holding anti-immigrant sentiment, including efforts to deny citizenship to American-born children of undocumented immigrants, and attempts to pass legislation that would allow employers to fire workers who do not speak English on the job.

Cissna announced his resignation in a one sentence email that was sent within the agency. In that email Cissna wrote, “At the request of the President, I submitted my resignation today effective June 1, 2019.” The USCIS spokesman later confirmed Cissna’s resignation to the media.

Cuccinelli is expected to lead the agency to align with the President’s hard-line immigration policies.