Kevin McAleenan resigns as acting homeland security secretary
Kevin McAleenan resigns as acting homeland security secretary
October 11, 2019
CNN Wire
https://tribwpmt.files.wordpress.com...0&h=225&crop=1WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 28: Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan speaks during a news conference at the Immigration and Customs Headquarters, on June 28, 2019 in Washington, DC. McAleenan spoke about the supplemental funding request for DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services and the changes needed to the immigration legal framework to address the humanitarian and border security crisis. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
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Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of homeland security since April and the fourth person to serve in that post since the Trump presidency began, submitted his resignation to the White House on Friday, a source tells CNN.
A source familiar with McAleenan’s thinking tells CNN that the acting secretary felt he had accomplished all he could given the political realities of today — specifically the unlikelihood that any legislative deal on immigration will happen in an election year. Moreover, with the numbers of undocumented immigrants apprehended or turned away at the border coming down for the fourth consecutive month — 52,546 in September, a 65% drop from May — the lack of crisis is dissuading members of Congress to act and compromise. McAleenan also has two young daughters and a wife with whom he wants to spend more time.
The announcement has been planned for weeks, sources close to McAleenan say, and has nothing to do with the Ukraine scandal in which Trump and several other Cabinet officials are currently enmeshed.
A source close to the process told CNN that White House officials tried to talk McAleenan out of resigning.
Sources close to McAleenan insist the decision has more to do with his feeling of having done all that he can do on the job as well as feeling the frustrations of someone who perceives his job to be non-partisan and does it from the perspective of a law enforcement officer.
McAleenan has also been in the position of working for a President who — critics say –seems to see immigration in starkly political and often racist terms.
The President appointing hardliners to leadership positions in his department hasn’t made his job any easier.
In an interview with The Washington Post published on October 1, McAleenan — whom Trump never formally nominated for the Cabinet position — said that while he controls his department, “What I don’t have control over is the tone, the message, the public face and approach of the department in an increasingly polarized time. That’s uncomfortable, as the accountable, senior figure.”
Other acting figures in the department whose tone and tenor are more Trump-like — acting commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan and acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli — have caused him difficulties, sources tell CNN, both by seemingly openly campaigning to replace him and by pushing rules that have seemed harsh to many in the public.
McAleenan found himself needing to respond to some of Cuccinelli’s actions, such as ending consideration for most deportation deferrals for undocumented immigrants with serious medical conditions and ending automatic citizenship for children born abroad to certain US servicemembers and others.
Still, the acting secretary has been able to point to concrete accomplishments. Border apprehensions have declined significantly, numbers that included Central Americans and families crossing the border, representing the heart of the crisis. A source familiar with McAleenan’s thinking says that he is proud of working with the governments of Mexico and the three Central American “Northern Triangle” countries — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — to crack down on human smugglers and block caravans heading north.
“It felt like the layers are now in place to prevent a similar surge sparking this Fall,” the source said.
A former DHS official said McAleenan understood the urgency of the situation.
“Starting with security partnerships first, McAleenan built a foundation of trust with the Northern Triangle countries that resulted in new bilateral agreements based on a shared commitment to confront irregular migration and eventually restore aid,” the former official said. “The President’s threat of tariffs on Mexico provided McAleenan with more opportunity to engage with an historically intractable partner on border security, resulting in a precipitous decline in apprehensions along the southern border.”
McAleenan is also proud of having pushed DHS to declare unequivocally that white supremacists pose a growing threat to the American people, a statement the White House previously refused to make in as stark a way, the source close to the acting secretary said. “The El Paso shooting hit close to home,” the source said, noting that six of those killed were family members of five agents and officers who work for the Department of Homeland Security.
https://fox43.com/2019/10/11/kevin-m...ity-secretary/
Trump announces acting Homeland Security Secretary McAleenan to leave post
2 hrs ago
By Samuel Chamberlain | Fox News
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan is stepping down from that position, President Trump announced Friday night.
"Kevin now, after many years in Government, wants to spend more time with his family and go to the private sector," Trump tweeted shortly before taking the stage at a rally in Lake Charles, La. "Congratulations Kevin, on a job well done!"
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
· 2h
Kevin McAleenan has done an outstanding job as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security. We have worked well together with Border Crossings being way down. Kevin now, after many years in Government, wants to spend more time with his family and go to the private sector....
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
....Congratulations Kevin, on a job well done! I will be announcing the new Acting Secretary next week. Many wonderful candidates!
4:46 PM - Oct 11, 2019
The president added that the new acting homeland security secretary would be announced next week and said he had "Many wonderful candidates" to fill the position.
A former senior DHS official with close ties to the administration told Fox News on Friday that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services acting Director Ken Cuccinelli is on the top of President Trump's list to be the next acting secretary.
The source noted that a Senate confirmation hearing would be bruising for Cuccinelli but "he, [White House adviser] Steve Miller and Trump are all in sync on a number of key policies. They have been trying to clear the way for a while."
Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach would likely be Trump's second choice, the official added. While Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator Dave Pekoske is next in line according to succession rules, Miller doesn't think "he is tough enough," the source said.
McAleenan called senior DHS leaders Friday night and said he was "leaving because of family," a source familiar with the call told Fox News. The same source also said McAleenan has been "on the outs with the White House, they didn't listen to him anymore, and he knew he wasn't going to get nominated" as DHS secretary.
McAleenan issued a statement Friday night following the president's announcement, thanking him for "the opportunity to serve alongside the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security."
"With his [Trump's] support, over the last six months we have made tremendous progress mitigating the border security and humanitarian crisis we faced this year, by reducing unlawful crossings, partnering with governments in the region to counter human smugglers and [addressing] the causes of migration, and [deploying] additional border security resources," he said.
Acting Sec. Kevin McAleenan
✔
@DHSMcAleenan
I want to thank the President for the opportunity to serve alongside the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security. With his support, over the last 6 months, we have made tremendous progress mitigating the border security and humanitarian crisis we faced this year...
5:01 PM - Oct 11, 2019
McAleenan took over in April after Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen quit, and he was the fourth person to lead the department in two years. Trump hasn't named anyone to the job yet -- the acting deputy is David Pekoske, the head of the Transportation Security Administration.
McAleenan, a longtime U.S. Customs and Border Protection official, was seen as a level head who could effectively manage the border crisis, but like many other former administration officials who came before, Trump eventually soured on him.
The 240,000-person department is tasked with election security and cybersecurity, disaster response and even the Secret Service. But for Trump, the Department of Homeland Security means one thing: immigration. The president's signature issue makes the department his focus and his ire. Balancing a White House eager to push major changes with the reality on the ground is a constant challenge.
McAleenan reacts to being shouted off stage at Georgetown Law SchoolVideo
On Monday, McAleenan was shouted off stage during a speaking engagement at Georgetown Law School by audience members protesting the Trump administration’s policies on immigration.
He told "Fox & Friends" that "part of the irony here is that this is supposed to be a group of immigration law experts who wanted to hear the facts of what's happening on the border. The facts of what's broken about our immigration system."
"I was going to challenge them on how we could talk and start a dialogue about how to fix it," McAleenan said. "But, apparently [I] didn't get that opportunity."
When it was clear that Georgetown Law Center was "not going to change that direction of that dialogue," McAleenan realized it was "time to go."
The Law Center released a statement sharing McAleenan's regret and said: "Georgetown is deeply committed to freedom of speech and expression."
McAleenan had said the border crisis was at its "breaking point" during a visit to Texas in March, reiterating there were not enough agents to respond.
Before serving in government, McAleenan practiced law in California. He attended Amherst College in Massachusetts and holds his law degree from the University of Chicago.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tru...-to-leave-post
2 very different DHS officials top Trump list to replace McAleenan as secretary
by Anna Giaritelli
| October 15, 2019 12:00 AM
Two candidates with starkly different backgrounds sit at the top of President Trump’s list of possible replacements for outgoing acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, according to three current and former senior DHS officials familiar with the discussions.
Ken Cuccinelli, a staunch conservative and border hawk with an affinity for Twitter and television, is the expected choice, but career DHS employee and veteran, David Pekoske, is also a possibility — and highly qualified.
Cuccinelli is the acting director of the department’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency and was inserted into the department, in a temporary capacity, four months ago.
“All signs point to Cuccinelli,” said one DHS official, who suggested that the White House may be monitoring reactions to one news report from Sunday floating Cuccinelli as the anticipated leader of the 240,000-person department, to see how much it upset Democrats and advocates of liberalized immigration rules.
Cuccinelli was a Virginia state senator in the 2000s and later became state attorney general. He advised the presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz in 2016 and was general counsel for Tea Party-aligned FreedomWorks after.
While in these positions, he adamantly advocated for policies and laws that restrict immigration. As a state legislator, he introduced legislation to force Virginia employees to speak only English at work, to call for a constitutional amendment to end birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants, and to bar illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition for public colleges.
He also compared immigrants to “rats” in 2013, said states should use "war powers" to block immigrants from crossing the border to claim asylum, and claimed the southern border was being “invaded” in 2015.
The same official said the White House might be inclined to go with Cuccinelli even though he's viewed as unable to get confirmed — including by Republican senators, in Politico, The Hill, and Roll Call articles — because they do not expect Democratic lawmakers to confirm any of Trump's nominees given their focus on impeachment proceedings, so might as well go with him.
The second option, Pekoske, is the acting deputy secretary of DHS under McAleenan. Pekoske was the other official in consideration when Trump chose McAleenan to replace former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Pekoske, 64, in 2010 concluded 33 years in the military, finishing as vice commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. The guard is the only one of the five military branches that is under DHS instead of the Defense Department because its personnel work closely with U.S. Customs and Border Protection along the sea border.
In June 2017, Trump nominated Pekoske to head TSA, and he was confirmed. His peers praised him last November and said the agency’s screening protocols have flourished in recent years compared to the 2016 meltdown.
The decision may come down to how the Trump administration thinks each will push forward its agenda.
Cuccinelli, 51, is known for going after those who disagree with him on Twitter and frequenting Fox News shows — pages out of Trump’s playbook. He has introduced several regulations despite not being confirmed, which is normally the prerequisite for taking such legal actions. Some of those proposals and rules, including the Public Charge update that bars more green card applicants who have relied on public assistance, changes to the asylum process, and work permits for asylum seekers residing in the country, have been challenged in court this summer.
Theresa Cardinal Brown, the immigration and cross-border director for the Bipartisan Policy Center, said the Trump administration is intentionally circumventing Congress to get its agenda implemented and said appointing or nominating someone to oversee that department who himself is not eligible “could be further grounds for the courts to enjoin” regulations, policy memos, and executive actions — all of which would mean delays to the administration.
“For example, the recent public charge regulations have been challenged at least in part on the basis that Cuccinelli is not legally in the job of USCIS director,” Cardinal Brown wrote in an email Monday. “So the advocacy community is not unaware of this avenue of attack.”
“But Cuccinelli is clearly the one the president wants to see on TV and be outspoken. That works to keep him in the president’s good graces, but it doesn’t necessarily help him actually manage the department,” she added.
While Pekoske has little experience with immigration policy, he understands other aspects of DHS business that Cardinal Brown said have been neglected for the past few years.
“There are so many operational agencies, including Coast Guard and CISA, Secret Service and Federal Protective Service. They all have important missions that need attending to, and with so many vacancies in the Department, there’s a lot that is getting little attention. But some significant ones include cybersecurity and election security, and now we have issues with major events and increases in domestic mass attacks (which Secret Service manages),” Brown wrote.
“In terms of longevity in the Department and knowing these missions, Pekoske obviously has more experience,” she finished.
Trump is expected to name his selection later this week and has not specified when McAleenan is leaving the department.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...n-as-secretary
