Tag: Kirstjen Nielsen

‘Volatile’ Trump ‘verbally and emotionally’ abused ex-DHS secretary Nielsen because she refused his ‘illegal’ demand to close US-Mexico border

AlterNet logoFrom former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, President Donald Trump has made life miserable for many of the Republicans who have been part of his administration. And the forthcoming Philip Rucker/Carol Leonnig book “A Very Stable Genius: Donald Trump’s Testing of America,” according to The Guardian’s David Smith, shows that there was also considerable tension between Trump and former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

The Guardian has obtained a copy of the book, which has a January 21 release date on Amazon — and Smith reports that Trump believed Nielsen wasn’t tough enough when it came to U.S/Mexico border policy. Nielsen became secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in December 2017 and resigned in April 2019.

“In some instances,” Rucker and Leonnig write in the book, “the volatile president was verbally and emotionally abusive toward Nielsen. ‘Kirstjen, you’re just not tough enough,’ Trump would tell her. Trump complained Nielsen did not ‘look the part’ of Homeland Security secretary.” Continue reading.

In Push for 2020 Election Security, Top Official Was Warned: Don’t Tell Trump

WASHINGTON — In the months before Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign, she tried to focus the White House on one of her highest priorities as homeland security secretary: preparing for new and different Russian forms of interference in the 2020 election.

President Trump’s chief of staff told her not to bring it up in front of the president.

Ms. Nielsen left the Department of Homeland Security early this month after a tumultuous 16-month tenure and tensions with the White House. Officials said she had become increasingly concerned about Russia’s continued activity in the United States during and after the 2018 midterm elections — ranging from its search for new techniques to divide Americans using social media, to experiments by hackers, to rerouting internet traffic and infiltrating power grids.

View the complete April 24 article by Eric Schmitt, David e. Sanger and Maggie Haberman on The New York Times website here.

Nielsen out at Homeland Security

President Trump announced Sunday that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will leave her post, ending a rocky run as the top official in charge of implementing the president’s hard-line immigration policies.

The decision, which Trump announced on Twitter, comes just two days after the president abruptly pulled back his nominee to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement because he said he wants “to go in a tougher direction.” The moves signal that Trump is seeking to shake up his team amid frustration over the spike in migrant families crossing the southern border.

Trump tweeted that Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, will lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on an acting basis until a permanent replacement for Nielsen is chosen.

View the complete April 7 article by Jordan Fabian and Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen Sees White Supremacist Terror Threat

The Department of Homeland Security is admitting that white supremacists are a real and growing problem, rejecting the claim Trump made after the Christchurch mass shooting.

In a speech at George Washington University on Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to acknowledge that hate-driven acts of violence are part of a growing problem within the United States.

The would-be terrorists “are using the same do-it-yourself, mass-murder tactics as we saw with the horrible assault last week in New Zealand against Muslim worshipers,” Nielsen said, even though Trump has refused to acknowledge the Islamic faith of those who were targeted in the mosque shootings.

View the complete March 18 article by Oliver Willis with The American Independent on the National Memo website here.

The Homeland Security Chief Says, Without Evidence, Children Are Being Recycled At The Border

“I’ve never seen an actual case of it despite the government bringing it up several times,” a migrant rights advocate said.

The secretary of homeland security told members of Congress on Wednesday that her agency had uncovered “recycling rings” where children were used multiple times to help undocumented immigrants enter the United States by claiming to be part of a family.

“We have even uncovered ‘recycling rings’ where innocent young people are used multiple times to help aliens gain illegal entry,” Kirstjen Nielsen told the House Homeland Security Committee. “As a nation we simply cannot stand for this. We must fix the system.”

Nielsen appeared before the committee to discuss border security, at a time when agents are apprehending a record number of families at the border and the Trump administration is still facing backlash over last summer’s “zero tolerance” policy that resulted in the systemic separation of families at the border.

View the complete March 6 article by Adolfo Flores on the BuzzFeed website here.

Nielsen claims asylum seekers are not being turned away at ports of entry

Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee on border security on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, March 6, 2019. Credit: Jim WATSON, AFP, Getty Images

“Madam Secretary, either you’re lying to this committee or you don’t know what’s happening at the border.”

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen faced brutal questioning about the rights of asylum seekers from Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-CA), during a hearing Wednesday before the House Homeland Security Committee.

Seeking asylum in the United States is not a crime. However, under the Trump administration, asylum seekers from several Central American countries have been turned away at ports of entry. In some cases, they are forced to remain in Mexico while they await their cases in U.S. immigration court.

Barragan challenged Nielsen about that practice, and questioned whether she was even aware of its existence.

View the complete March 6 article by Rebekah Entralgo on the ThinkProgress website here.

Jeff Merkley requests FBI perjury investigation into Kirstjen Nielsen

Sen. Jeff Merkley is requesting that the FBI open a perjury investigation into Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call

At issue is testimony before Congress about family separations at border

Sen. Jeff Merkley is requesting that the FBI open a perjury investigation into Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, based on testimony she gave to Congress in December on family separations at the southern border.

Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in December, Nielsen stated “I’m not a liar, we’ve never had a policy for family separation.”

Memos made public Thursday show that officials from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security were exploring family separation polices as a deterrent for illegal immigrants a full year before that testimony.

 

Trump administration says it isn’t responsible for reuniting deported parents and children

The following article by Rebekah Entralgo was posted on the ThinkProgress website August 3, 2018:

The ACLU calls the administration’s refusal to reunite deported parents and children “remarkable.”

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Credit: Kevin Hagen, Getty Images

The Trump administration continues to wash their hands of any responsibility of solving a crisis of their own creation.

On Thursday night, the Department of Justice (DOJ) informed a federal judge that the government is not responsible for finding the over 400 parents separated from their children at the border who were deported and are no longer in the United States.

Instead, the government believes it is the responsibility of the American Civil Liberties Unions (ACLU), the organization suing the federal government, to reunify deported parents with their children.

View the complete article here.

Liar Lies

The following article by Paul Blest was posted on the Splinter website June 17, 2018:

Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, possibly in response to a calloutfrom GOP senators Jeff Flake and Susan Collins today, tweeted out a demonstrably false statement about the Trump administration’s family separation policy this evening: that it does not exist.

Continue reading “Liar Lies”

Trump waives dozens of environmental rules to speed up construction of border wall

The following article by Jacqueline Thomsen was posted on the Hill website January 22, 2018:

© Getty Images

The Trump administration is waiving dozens of environmental regulations to speed up construction of President Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a notice published in the Federal Register Monday that she was waiving the rules to accelerate construction on part of the wall in New Mexico. Continue reading “Trump waives dozens of environmental rules to speed up construction of border wall”