Monitoring Desk
WASHINGTON: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned Sunday.
CBS News was first to report that Nielsen was meeting with President Trump at 5 p.m. and was expected to resign. The Associated Press reported that Nielsen thought she might be fired, but ultimately turned in her resignation. She had become frustrated with the increased meddling from some of the president’s aides and lack of support from other departments.
The president tweeted confirmation that she was departing.
The president soon tweeted that she was out.
“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 of @DHSgov,” Trump tweeted Sunday evening. “I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job!”
In her resignation letter, obtained by CNN, she wrote that it was “the right time to step aside.”
“I hope that the next Secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts in fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure America’s borders and which have contributed to discord in our nation’s discourse,” she said.
“Our country and the men and women of DHS deserve to have all the tools and resources they need to execute the mission entrusted in them. I can say with confidence our homeland is safer today than when I joined the Administration,” she added.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry is being considered for the position, according to the Washington Post’s Bob Costa, as well as Ken Cuccinelli, the former attorney general of Virginia.
Perry, the ex-governor of Texas, had his name floated in 2017 as well, when John Kelly was leaving the post for the White House.
She’s been long expected to depart the administration.
Last May, the Washington Post reported that the president berated the DHS secretary in a cabinet meeting for more than 30 minutes over the flow of central American migrants coming from Mexico into the United States. Even then Trump was threatening to “close down” the border – a threat he again made last month, only to back down this week and pressure Mexico with car tariffs instead.
“Why don’t you have solutions? How is this still happening,” Trump said at the time. “We need to shut it down. We’re closed.”
The New York Times reported then that Nielsen told her colleagues she came close to resigning.
Nielsen was on better footing in June, when she became the administration’s face for family separations, impressing the president at a press conference held in the White House briefing room where she blamed Congress for not fixing immigration loopholes that contributed to the problem. This was an about-face from Senate testimony she had given in which she aired concerns about migrant children being placed with guardians or other family members instead of their parents.
Despite taking ownership over one of the administration’s most controversial issues, in November, the Washington Post reported that Nielsen was on the verge of being pushed out of the job by Trump, according to current and former White House officials.
Nielsen’s former boss, then-Chief of Staff John Kelly, was reportedly trying to help her keep the job.
By early December Kelly announced his own departure from the White House.
This week the DHS secretary was caught flat-footed when the president announced that he was pulling the nomination of Ronald Vitiello as head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the Washington Examiner.
Trump said he wanted to go in a “tougher” direction.
Vitiello’s demise came at the hands of Stephen Miller, who has also complained about Nielsen.
The president has continued to be frustrated by the flow of migrants coming into the U.S. from Mexico, who have been overwhelming American resources.
“Illegal migration, we can’t take you anymore. Our country is full. The sector is full. We can’t take you anymore. Turn around. That’s the way it is,” Trump said when he visited Southern California on Friday – a trip he took with both Nielsen and her replacement.
While Democrats were largely critical of Nielsen’s performance, they didn’t greet the news happily.
“When even the most radical voices in the administration aren’t radical enough for President Trump, you know he’s completely lost touch with the American people,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a statement Sunday night.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) echoed Schumer’s comments.
“It is deeply alarming that the Trump Administration official who put children in cages is reportedly resigning because she is not extreme enough for the White House’s liking,” Pelosi said.
Courtesy: (nypost.com)
