Trump immigration head Ken Cuccinelli proposes this change to the Statue of Liberty poem

(Image credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated August 13, 2019

Acting Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli is a poetry revisionist, apparently.

In an interview on Tuesday morning with NPR's Morning Edition, Cuccinelli spoke with host Rachel Martin about a new Trump administration rule — "The Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds" policy — that could make it more difficult for immigrants to obtain a green card or U.S. citizenship if they are deemed likely to become reliant on government benefits.

Cuccineli made the case that it's not too much to ask for immigrants coming into the United States to not rely on the government for government assistance. He said that it's a longstanding tradition in the U.S. that people who can "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" are welcome, but that "no one has the right to be an American" if they aren't born in the country. He called it a privilege instead.