U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli dipped his toe into the world of memes on Wednesday, tweeting out a photo of a homemade Statue of Liberty and comparing it to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, because who the hell knows why.
The groups MoveOn and United We Dream took credit for placing the statue outside Cuccinelli’s office in protest of the new “public charge” policies that will take effect in October. But instead of taking the statue as an insult, Cuccinelli, who once referred to caravans of migrants as invaders, had it moved inside USCIS as a decoration.
And then today, Cuccinelli tweeted a side-by-side of the statue’s face with Carlson’s, asking followers, “What do you think?”
Jose Munoz, communication manager with United We Dream, a youth-led immigrant activism organization, told Splinter he couldn’t comment on USCIS taking the statue for themselves, nor any potential plans to retrieve the statue, but said he wasn’t surprised Cuccinelli decided to compare the statue to Carlson online.
“We know that the policies that the Trump administration is trying to move forward are ones that are anti-immigrant, so…this response is not surprising in the slightest,” Munoz said.
As for Cuccinelli’s jab at Carlson, it’s unclear if he was attempting to troll the organizations that left the statue, Carlson himself, all parties involved, or if he even knows what trolling is. I’ve reached out to USCIS for comment and will update this post if I hear back.
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