The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and several legal experts are questioning President Donald Trump’s authority to bypass a senior Homeland Security official in order to install a hand-picked acting head of the Cabinet agency that oversees immigration enforcement.
After Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Sunday that she was resigning, Trump announced on Twitter that Customs and Border Patrol Director Kevin McAleenan would take over DHS on an acting basis.
However, in a letter to Trump on Monday, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) wrote that “the law of succession at the Department is clear” that upon Nielsen’s departure the temporary duty to lead the agency would pass to Undersecretary for Management Claire Grady.