Thread by @AvidehNILC

Meet Lee Francis Cissna, Director of @USCIS — the man actively working behind the scenes to alter our country's immigration system in cruel, inhumane, and nativist ways. RT this thread and spread the word.

Under Cissna, USCIS has transformed to make life harder for people seeking to come to or live in the US. Recently, USCIS issued a new policy that lets them hastily deny green card applications without giving applicants notice or a chance to respond: propublica.org/article/author…

Cissna also instituted the menacing denaturalization task force, which is designed to make even those who have attained U.S. citizenship fearful by taking away the assumption of permanence for the more than twenty million naturalized U.S. citizens: newyorker.com/news/our-colum…

Cissna also attempted to issue a policy that would have forced applicants whose legal status might have timed out during processing time to be deported by ICE. uscis.gov/news/alerts/up…

Then there have been other fear-inducing tactics that USCIS has adopted under Cissna's watch, like when agents coordinated with ICE to target people showing up for a green card interview only to be arrested by ICE:

https://twitter.com/NILC_org/status/1030526128740593665

Cissna was also behind redrafting USCIS' mission statement - instead of securing "America's promise as a nation of immigrants," its stated purpose is now "securing the homeland, and honoring our values." Here's how he tried to justify it: thehill.com/homenews/news/…

He defended his appearance at an event hosted by an organization labeled by the @SPLCenter as a hate group as "fine" and "perfectly reasonable" despite the group's vehemently nativist agenda: politico.com/magazine/story…

Now, Cissna is preparing to help roll out a new rule that will effectively turn our immigration system into a pay-to-play game structure and will undo nearly century-old rules in our immigration system: washingtonpost.com/opinions/three…

People like Cissna, DHS Secretary Nielsen, Stephen Miller, and so many others, are there to fulfill Trump's plainly xenophobic vision of drastically dismantling our immigration system as we know it. We must all join together to fight them and their cruel policies. #DefundHate