Acting Homeland Security Deputy Secretary and Principal Deputy Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Ken Cuccinelli took to Twitter on Monday and blamed a mass stabbing on the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which was signed into law by then-President Ronald Reagan.
Over the weekend, 37-year-old Grafton Thomas of Greenwood Lake, New York, allegedly attempted to murder five Hasidic Jewish men who were celebrating Hannukah at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York. Thomas was reportedly armed with a long knife, which was otherwise described as a machete. Thomas was arrested in Harlem hours later.
While Thomas has been charged with attempted murder, burglary and federal hate crimes, the defendant’s family claims that he has a long history of mental illness. Thomas pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and burglary charges; you can expect the same for the hate crime charges that were added on Monday. He’s being held on $5 million bail.
Ken Cuccinelli had something else entirely on his mind.
“The attacker is the US Citizen son of an illegal alien who got amnesty under the 1986 amnesty law for illegal immigrants. Apparently, American values did not take hold among this entire family, at least this one violent, and apparently bigoted, son,” Cuccinelli tweeted.
Cuccinelli, the Republican former Attorney General of Virginia, has since deleted the tweet, but the evidence of it remains.
A deleted tweet from @HomelandKen, in reference to the suspect in stabbing attack in Monsey, NY:https://t.co/Rs5vo1vC4R pic.twitter.com/FgwWYB7JrN
— Derek Willis (@derekwillis) December 30, 2019
Ken Cuccinelli deleted the tweet criticized here. Screenshot, for posterity. pic.twitter.com/rKiROvBRRT
— Alex Wayne (@aawayne) December 30, 2019
A tweet by acting DHS deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli (@HomelandKen) that suggested the suspect in the New York Hanukkah stabbings is a US citizen who had not assimilated appears to have been deleted or removed pic.twitter.com/xo7Nc2iw8x
— Ted Hesson (@tedhesson) December 30, 2019
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the Saturday attack a “blatant act” of anti-Semitic domestic terrorism.
I am horrified by the stabbing of multiple people at a synagogue in Rockland County tonight.
We have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism in NY and we will hold the attacker accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
NY stands with the Jewish community. pic.twitter.com/JILUoFXJc9
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) December 29, 2019
[Image via John Moore/Getty Images]
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