Stephen Miller wants Trump to oust more senior leaders at Homeland Security
Stephen Miller wants Trump to oust more senior leaders at Homeland Security
By Priscilla Alvarez, Jake Tapper and Abby Phillip, CNN
Updated 12:12 PM ET, Mon April 8, 2019
Washington (CNN)White House senior adviser Stephen Miller wants to make sure that outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is only the first of a string of senior officials headed out the door.
Trump administration officials say that Miller, who played key a role in Nielsen's ouster, also wants the President to dismiss the director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Lee Cissna, and the department's general counsel, John Mitnick.
A senior administration official also said that under the law, DHS Under Secretary of Management Claire Grady, the current acting deputy secretary, is next in line of succession to be acting secretary. That means there are questions as to whether she will need to be fired as well in order to make Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan the acting DHS secretary, as Trump tweeted Sunday night.
Miller's heightened influence within the West Wing has been aided by the President, who recently told aides in an Oval Office meeting that Miller was in charge of all immigration and border related issues in the White House, according to a person familiar with the meeting.
RELATED: How border hardliners nudged out Nielsen
Miller has always informally been one of the leading hardliner voices on immigration in the West Wing. But this change formalizes that role and it also gives him the ability to call and chair meetings on immigration issues. This change was first reported by The Washington Post.
The sudden shift in personnel is indicative of the White House trying to redirect immigration policy following a surge of migrant apprehensions at the southern border in recent months.
The President has pushed in recent weeks to reinstate the family separation policy, which Nielsen resisted, a source familiar with the discussions says. Trump rescinded that policy amid public outrage and scrutiny from the courts last summer.
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Kirstjen Nielsen just got pushed out of the most impossible job in Trump's Washington
Additionally, after Trump walked back his threat to close the US-Mexico border and praised Mexico for doing more to stop the flow of immigrants, the President has since soured on his own walk back. By the end of the week, Trump became frustrated once again about the issues at the border, dissatisfied that Mexico was not doing enough and looking for his aides to take tougher steps to address the problem.
The changes have left the department in limbo, which has had at least three positions filled by people in an acting capacity in senior roles.
Late last week, the White House abruptly withdrew the nomination of Ron Vitiello for director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which caught both Congress and the department by surprise. Nielsen was unaware what was happening until after the nomination was pulled, a person familiar with the news said.
RELATED: It may take 2 years to identify thousands of separated families, government says
Asked about the mood at DHS following Nielsen's resignation, one DHS official told CNN there was "some exasperation," adding that the department doesn't "have enough depth" to fill longtime vacancies.
"We are losing leadership faster than we can get it confirmed or even hired permanently," the official said.
CNN's Evan Perez contributed to this report.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/08/polit...ity/index.html
