Overview
Ken Cuccinelli wrote Chapter 5, Department of Homeland Security, of Heritage's 2023 Mandate for Leadership. It called for legislation to dismantle and redistribute DHS functions and for numerous immigration-enforcement changes. The published chapter is a policy blueprint; subsequent DHS orders require separate evidence to identify who drafted and authorized them.
2023 Project 2025 chapter
The book identifies Cuccinelli as the author of the DHS chapter (pp. 133–170). Its principal structural proposal was legislation to dissolve DHS and redistribute its functions; no verified subsequent statute completed that step as of November 2026. [1]
Specific immigration policy overlap
The chapter urges fuller use of expedited-removal authority and other measures to expand immigration enforcement. Acting DHS secretary Benjamine Huffman signed a nationwide expanded expedited-removal designation on January 21, 2025. This establishes a published blueprint-to-action match, not personal authorship of the signed order by Cuccinelli. [2]
Relationship to government decision-makers
Cuccinelli's earlier DHS service and policy authorship are separate from the legal authority to sign the January 2025 notice. No reviewed contemporaneous instruction shows that he issued the directive to Huffman or that the 2025 immigration order originated exclusively in Project 2025 rather than other Trump administration plans. [2]
Sources
- Original Project 2025 2023 book, Chapter 5, pp. 133–170
- DHS Jan. 21, 2025 expedited-removal designation, published in Federal Register
Evidence principle: Published proposal, appointment, document signature, agency action, and judicial ruling are different facts. A named relationship alone does not establish misconduct or authorship of another official's decision.