The following is a news analysis.

At a Congressional hearing this week, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz used her time to launch racially-tinged attacks against Ken Cuccinelli, the Trump administration’s head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Shultz told Cuccinelli that he and President Trump follow a “white supremacist ideology” and wish to block all non-white immigrants from entering the U.S.

You and Mr. Trump don’t want anyone who looks or talks differently than Caucasian Americans to be allowed into this country.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz, D-Florida, to USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli

Cuccinelli protested saying “that’s false” and “that’s defamatory,” but Wasserman Shultz repeatedly told him he was wrong and that he was not entitled to respond.

Watch the video of the Congressional hearing here.

During the exchange, Wasserman Shultz also claimed that legal immigrants and illegal immigrants are the same thing.

“My constituents, Americans across this country aren’t fooled by this administration’s specious attempts to distinguish between documented and undocumented immigration,” Wasserman Schultz told Cuccinelli at the House Oversight subcommittee hearing.

Lastly, Wasserman Shultz accused Cuccinelli of wanting to “block all immigration and make life harder for immigrants” and stated that he demonstrated that he will “pursue this heinous white supremacist ideology at all costs, even if it means making critically ill children your collateral damage in the process.”

Over Wasserman Shultz’s objections, Cuccinelli did fit in his opinion that, “I am not a white supremacist, as you alluded, nor is the president.”

Discussion

On Wasserman Shultz’s claim that legal and illegal immigrants are the same thing: that statement is obviously false on its face. Typically, legal immigrants have “waited their turn,” and gone through approved processes. They are entitled to be in the U.S. and generally enjoy certain benefits and rights without fear of being deported.

Illegal immigrants, on the other hand, have not followed proper processes; and thus have a different status under laws enacted by Congress and under the U.S. Constitution.

Regarding Wasserman Shultz’s claim that Cuccinelli and Trump “don’t want anyone who looks or talks differently than Caucasian Americans to be allowed into this country,” there is no evidence supporting this assertion.

In fact, the record shows the opposite: as acting head of USCIS, Cuccinelli has administered over the routine admission and processing of legal immigrants, regardless of their race or how the immigrant “looks or talks.” There is no indication that he has inserted himself into the process to interfere with legal immigration to admit only those who look or talk like Caucasian Americans.

Lastly, there is also evidence contrary to Wasserman-Shultz’s claim that Cuccinelli wants to “block all immigration and make life harder for immigrants” and “pursue this heinous white supremacist ideology at all costs.”

A search of Cuccinelli’s record to date shows nothing that indicates he has voiced a desire to, or attempted to block, all immigration and make life harder for immigrants. As stated above, he has overseen the continued, routine processing and admission of all legal immigrants into the U.S.

As for the implication that Cuccinelli is a white supremacist or holds such ideologies, there is no evidence of this in the public record.

For example, As Virginia Attorney General, Cuccinelli chose a Chief Deputy who is black, and the man who was the leader of the office is black.

Additionally, one of the most high profile cases Cuccinelli personally argued was to exonerate a black man named Thomas Haynesworth who had been convicted of two sexual assaults.

Conclusion

For multiple unsupported and false claims and implications, Wasserman Shultz earns an unequivocal Triple Devil rating.