Kirstjen Nielsen has resigned as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary in the midst of soaring illegal immigration levels and an expanded Catch and Release policy under her direction.
On Sunday, President Trump wrote online that Nielsen would be leaving her position as head of DHS.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service….
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Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service….
….I am pleased to announce that Kevin McAleenan, the current U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, will become Acting Secretary for @DHSgov. I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job!
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Nielsen’s resignation as DHS secretary comes amid a surge of illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and an expanded Catch and Release policy that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has been tasked with carrying out.
During Nielsen’s tenure as DHS secretary, illegal immigration has increased nearly every month over the last year and a half. Simultaneously, the Trump administration has yet to construct a border wall on new land at the southern border that did not previously have barriers built by the Bush and Obama administrations.
Most recently, officials with the National ICE Council accused Nielsen of “grossly” mismanaging DHS and failing to acknowledge that the agency had been operating an expanded Catch and Release policy for border crossers and illegal aliens for months.
As Breitbart News chronicled, Nielsen previously served in the Bush administration overseeing a crisis team following the destruction of New Orleans, Louisiana, by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Bush administration had waved federal regulations to allow an unlimited level of illegal immigration into the Gulf Coast to take low-skill jobs rebuilding the region. Nielsen previously chaired a World Economic Forum committee that authored a report praising mass migration into Europe. For her confirmation process to DHS, Nielsen worked with an assortment of allies that worked vigorously in the 2016 presidential election to oppose Trump, including Frances Townsend and Tom Ridge.
Kirstjen Nielsen, Trump’s nominee to lead DHS, opposes wall along length of Mexican border
President Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that she does not support building a wall along the entire length of the U.S. southern border.
Kirstjen Nielsen, an attorney with cyber- and homeland security experience, told senators during her confirmation hearing that the border should be fortified instead with a mix of personnel, technology and physicial fencing.
Her stand mirrors that of former DHS secretary — and her current boss — White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. Nielsen was Kelly’s chief of staff at DHS and followed him to the White House, where she is principal deputy chief of staff.
“The president has stated as have predecessors at DHS certainly something that I share: There is no need for a wall from sea to shining sea,” she said.
Nielsen previously worked at the Transportation Security Administration and on the White House Homeland Security Council under President George W. Bush.
If confirmed, she will oversee some 240,000 employees at Customs and Border Protection, the Transportation Security Administration, Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, among other agencies.
Senators grilled her during the hearing about climate change, port security, deferring deportation for children brought to the country illegally, and combating violent extremism, including by white supremacists.
Nielsen vowed to closely monitor and strengthen department programs designed to counter extremism. She said undocumented children brought to the United States illegally will not be a priority for deportation if she is confirmed, and that criminals would be.
Nielsen’s nomination has not been particularly controversial since Trump announced it last month. She is expected to win confirmation easily, though she did provide some answers Wednesday that took some some senators aback. For example on climate change, Nielsen declined to say she believes humans caused it.
“I do absolutely believe that the climate is changing,” she said. “I’m not prepared to determine causation.”