DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen Resigns
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has tendered her resignation. After meeting with President Trump at the White House, the embattled Nielsen was reported to be leaving her post, later confirmed via presidential tweet.
President Trump announced Sunday that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was leaving the administration, marking the exit of a second top immigration official in a matter of days as the White House continues to grapple with an influx of migrants on the southern border.
Replacing her on an acting basis will be Kevin McAleenan, who currently serves as the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Trump said Sunday. The announcement on Twitter came shortly after Trump and Nielsen met at the White House, according to two senior administration officials.
“Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service,” Trump tweeted Sunday evening. “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!”
The meeting between Trump and Nielsen was not disclosed on the president’s public schedule that was distributed by the White House, and it came three days after the White House abruptly yanked the nomination of Ronald Vitiello, who had been picked as Trump’s director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The president later signaled that he wants the nation to go “in a tougher direction” on immigration enforcement.
It was not immediately clear whether Nielsen resigned or if Trump fired her. One senior administration official said Nielsen “did not go to the White House with the intention of resigning.”
Everytime this happens, I can’t help but wonder just what Trump asked them to do that was the bridge too far.Report
I’m sure we’ll eventually find out many conflicting versions of what happened, all from unnamed sources that some reporter will just make up.
Kevin McAleenan is highly regarded by everyone from the guys in the field to the top ranks, so he should do fine.Report
She was fired.Report
The most likely explanation is nothing but Nielsen couldn’t get around the political institutions to engage in maximum Trumpian cruelty.Report
If there is anything to that it more relates to having to defend it to congress and in public. That isn’t going to get any easier over the next year. She hasn’t looked good defending the crap they have already done. And it’s not like Trump won’t throw any of his peeps to the wolves the second it suits him.Report
They just pulled the ICE head honcho’s nomination on Friday, who was a career guy. So this might have been the last straw for Nielsen, or both together was a housecleaning. This also might be a legacy of score settling with former chief of staff Kelly (Nielsen was his hire as both DHS secretary and deputy secretary)
Though the acting DHS head, while not quite a ‘career’ guy, has been around that department & component agencies a while in executive positions in administrations of both parties.Report
I wonder if he’ll just put in yet another permanent interim head. By the end of his term every head, accept for Barr who has served his master well, will be a forever interim time filler.Report
In which case much of the government will grind to a halt. In most of the departments, there are some set of things which cannot be done by an “acting”, but only by someone properly approved by the Senate. They can be put off for a certain amount of time, but at some point not performing those actions effectively shuts things down.Report
That will be a feature, not a bug. Likely an unplanned, accidental feature, but not a real problem.Report
This could be very bad. I smell Miller behind it and Trump has complained that he wants to get tougher on the border.Report
I’ve lost track. Was this another one he fired for incompetence or was she refusing to do something?Report
Refusing to do stuff, apparently.
It sounds like Trump kept trying to reinstate family separations. Since January. (The family separations, remember, were supposedly an entirely accidental combination of excess demand and some previous court rulings and Obama-era policies. And it certainly was not anything that the Trump administration had done on purpose. Except of course they did…or possibly they did it by accident and Trump just really liked it.)
As this had been barred by the courts, she, weirdly, kept refusing to do that specific thing.Report
I think it’s broader than that. The borders are leaking badly, he wants that fixed, it was her job to deal with it, she failed.
It’s the whole “Lincoln firing generals until he finds one who can win” thing.Report
It sounds like she wanted to at least pretend to follow the law, nd that was unacceptable for Trump.Report
Like in the case of Sessions, another victory for chaotic evil over lawful evil.Report
Well they are in full purge mode and he seems to be putting Miller in charge of immigration so Chaotic Evil seems spot on.Report
Courtesty someone over at LGM:
https://twitter.com/On_Politike/status/1112895377181741057
“20 years ago today, I was loaded on this train against my will and was made a #Refugee. I had done nothing wrong and broken no laws. I simply belonged to the wrong ethnic group…”
If this sounds hyperbolic, like it couldn’t happen here:
The U.S. Is Tracking Migrant Girls’ Periods to Stop Them From Getting Abortions
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a26985261/trump-administration-abortion-period-tracking-migrant-women/
“If the government can compel marginalized women to have children to give to the government’s preferred people, then you don’t need to make jokes about how America is turning into The Handmaid’s Tale anymore. We’re already there. We just don’t have the bonnets.”Report
The word on the street is that she stayed on for so long because she knew people would never forgive what she had done on the outside. Or as Jeffrey Tobin noted, she is always going to be the “put kids in cages” lady. And she should probably always be known by as this.
Trump is a reverse Midas. Everything he touches turns to shit. The news is all about how this purge is because Trump is really, really angry at people in his administration and the government informing him that he is not the Absolute Monarch of America and there are limits on his power. The obviously going into cognitive decline cheeto Benito we have as President can somehow remember he is a stone-cold racist that hates non-white and non-rich people. And lickspittle lackeys continue to hang on because they love access and power more than dignity and kindness.
People continue to kinda, sorta condemn yet support Trump because they might loathe the man but they hate Democrats and liberals more.Report