Tag: Trump Homeland Security Department

Trump says he’ll nominate Chad Wolf to be DHS secretary

Axios logo

President Trump tweeted on Tuesday that he will nominate acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf to be the permanent head of the agency.

Why it matters: It’s been more than 500 days since a Senate-confirmed secretary led the Department of Homeland Security — a record for any administration.

  • Wolf himself has served in an acting role since November 2019, taking over from acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan. Kirstjen Nielsen, who resigned in April 2019, was the last Senate-confirmed DHS secretary.
  • Earlier this month, the Government Accountability Office foundthat Wolf and his acting deputy Ken Cuccinelli are ineligible to serve in their positions because the administration did not follow federal law governing how certain leadership vacancies can be filled. Continue reading.

DHS gives farmers latitude in hiring foreign workers

Farm groups had warned of labor shortages

The Homeland Security Department, reacting to what it called an “unprecedented crisis,” will allow farmers facing delays in getting approval for petitions for foreign agricultural labor to hire farmworkers holding H-2A visas and already in the United States.

How many farmers this will help is unknown.

The temporary final rule announced Wednesday comes after mounting pressure from agriculture groups for access to H-2A workers primarily to plant and harvest fruits and vegetables. The organizations said farmers might find themselves short-handed as the State Department maintains COVID-19 protections, such as social distancing, for embassy staff as it reviews new and returning H-2A applicants. Continue reading.

‘Unqualified Trump loyalist’: Experts slam appointment of Stephen Miller ally to be top lawyer at DHS

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump has installed Chad Mizelle, an attorney tied to top White House advisor Stephen Miller, to run the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Office of the General Counsel. Miller is largely seen as an anti-immigrant extremist and white nationalist. Mizelle has been an attorney for under 10 years, and will now be in charge of 2500 other attorneys, as CNN reports.

An unverified Twitter account under the name of Chad Mizelle, which includes tweets about Cornell University, his alma mater, shows a Chad Mizelle retweeted a Federalist Society tweet quoting attorney Charles Cooper that says: “Requiring complete diversity may well be unconstitutional.” Cooper has represented Jeff Sessions, John Bolton, and John Ashcroft

Continue reading.

Chad Wolf sworn in as acting DHS secretary

Axios logoChad Wolf is now the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the Washington Post’s Nick Miroff reports. He was sworn in the same day he was confirmed by the Senate to an undersecretary position.

Why it matters: Wolf is the fifth person to lead DHS under Trump, replacing Kevin McAleenan whose resignation was announced almost five weeks ago. Some hardliners have questioned his commitment to the president’s immigration agenda. Wolf is expected to elevate Ken Cuccinelli — a conservative favorite serving as acting director of Citizenship and Immigration Services — to the second highest position in the agency, CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported.

View the November 13 article on the Axios website here.

Trump says acting Homeland Security chief McAleenan will step down

The Hill logoPresident Trump announced Friday night that Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan would step down from his position.

“Kevin McAleenan has done an outstanding job as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security. We have worked well together with Border Crossings being way down,” tweeted Trump, who tapped McAleenan to lead the department earlier this year.

“Kevin now, after many years in Government, wants to spend more time with his family and go to the private sector,” Trump tweeted. “Congratulations Kevin, on a job well done!”

View the complete October 11 article by Brett Samuels and Jessica Campisi on The Hill website here.

Scoop: Top Homeland Security aide resigns amid tensions with White House

Axios logoActing Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan’s top aide and spokesperson is resigning amid frustration in the White House over the Department of Homeland Security’s handling of major policy rollouts and White House distrust of McAleenan and his inner circle, sources familiar with his resignation tell Axios.

Why it matters: Andrew Meehan’s departure comes amid broader internal tensions between the White House and DHS leadership. President Trump is wary of McAleenan, whom he associates with the Obama administration, and his top aides, several current and former administration officials tell us. These sources say Trump has no intention of formally nominating McAleenan for a permanent position.

Continue reading “Scoop: Top Homeland Security aide resigns amid tensions with White House”

Legality of Trump move to replace Nielsen questioned

NOTE:  Late in the day April 9, it was reported that Undersecretary for Management Grady was fired to allow Trump to put his hand-picked person in charge of Homeland Security.

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.

View the complete April 9 article by Josh Gerstein and Stephanie Beasley on the Politico website here.

The Trump Administration Has Deported 471 Parents Separated From Their Kids At The Border

The American Civil Liberties Union has been leading an effort to contact deported parents to try to reunify them with their children.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration disclosed in a court filing Wednesday that the government deported 471 migrant parents separated from their children at the US–Mexico border without first giving them the option to reunify.

It was the first concrete number from the government about the number of parents deported without their children during the spike in family separations in 2018. In court filings last summer, the Justice Department indicated the number was upward of 400, but the numbers continued to change as new information came in and as reunifications began under a federal court order.

More than eight months after a judge in San Diego ordered the government to reunify separated families, information has continued to trickle in about the scope and aftermath of family separations. More than 2,800 children were separated from a parent crossing the border and placed in US custody, and it was clear early on that hundreds of those kids had a parent who had been deported. In Wednesday’s filing, the government offered an exact number.

View the complete March 6 article by Zoe Tillman on the BuzzFeed website here.