Acting Citizenship and Immigration Director Cuccinelli blasts Congress for 'complaining' about border without acting: 'It's the height of hypocrisy'

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Acting Citizenship and Immigration Services director on conditions at the border, illegal immigration enforcement

Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, joins Dana Perino on 'Fox News Sunday.'

Acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli took aim at Congress, accusing them of complaining about a crisis at the border they have done nothing to solve.

Cuccinelli discussed how a surge of asylum claims are overwhelming American facilities that are strained for resources. He said the current volume of people trying to enter the U.S. has resulted in poor conditions, and pointed a finger at lawmakers for not doing enough to fix the situation.

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"People in the House come down and complain about them while not helping fix the problem," he told host Dana Perino on "Fox News Sunday." "It's the height of hypocrisy."

Cuccinelli said he visited a detention facility in El Paso, Texas, that had a maximum capacity of 800 people, but by the time he got there, it had 950.

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"It was being run well, it was run safely, and so forth, but once you're over those capacity points, you encounter problems."

He called on Congress to act by passing legislation that would change asylum laws in ways that limit those who can enter the U.S., but he was not optimistic that lawmakers will do anything.

"They just want to politicize it," he said. "They don't actually want to solve the problem."

Cuccinelli also addressed deportation operations that President Trump has delayed, saying that he warned that if people were aware that authorities were coming, it could pose "a threat to officer safety." He also said that such operations should not be controversial.

"This is just what ICE is supposed to do," he said, pointing out that there are "approximately a million people" in the U.S. who already went through a court process and were ordered to leave, but stayed, which is why ICE officials have to conduct operations to remove them.

"The fact that we've fallen to the point where we're talking about it like it's news tells you how far that we have fallen in the enforcement side," he said. "It is the most violated federal court order in America."