This is a BFD: The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) has concluded that both of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) unconfirmed and out-of-control leaders were unlawfully appointed to their positions. “GAO, which is an independent watchdog agency that reports to Congress, said that Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and his deputy Kenneth Cuccinelli are serving under an invalid order of succession under the Vacancies Reform Act,” The Washington Post reports.
While experts note this finding doesn’t boot the unconfirmed officials out of office, it may have significant implications in litigation against the administration. "This is massive," tweeted American Immigration Council Policy Counsel Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. “The administration is likely to ignore the GAO's decision, but this is a potentially HUGE blow to the legality of every single thing that done at DHS since [former acting DHS Sec.] Kevin McAleenan took control in April 2019, and everything that both Wolf and Cuccinelli have done as well."
“Those two appointments violated the act, GAO said, because of the sequence of events following the resignation of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in April of last year,” The Washington Post report continued. “The official who assumed the title of acting secretary at that time, Kevin McAleenan, had not been designated in the order of succession, GAO said.”
A federal court had already previously ruled that the truly very strange Cuccinelli had been unlawfully appointed to head U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Reichlin-Melnick said the administration has since dropped its appeal, yet still “letting him go to work every day.” Meanwhile, unconfirmed Chad signed a memo slashing protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, and stated that the administration would reject all new applicants, in defiance of court orders to fully reopen the program.
Congressional leaders immediately began to call on both Wolf and Cuccinelli to resign. Late last year, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) had called on the GAO to conduct an emergency review into the two’s unconfirmed appointments, writing at the time that “[t]he CHC is gravely concerned that DHS’s top officials may be serving in violation of the law.” In a tweet Friday, the CHC said that “we were right. Wolff [sic] & Cuccinelli must resign in disgrace—a major loss for Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda & a win for the rule of law.”
In another tweet, Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar also demanded Wolf and Cuccinelli’s resignations:
Escobar was among the Congressional leaders targeted in a racist and violent Facebook group that counted current and former Customs and Border Protection agents among its members. But even though she was personally targeted, the agency has blocked Congressional leaders from key investigation findings, including the names of the lone four agents who were ultimately fired for their gross conduct. It’s lawlessness on top of lawlessness at DHS—and that includes the very people at the top. They both need to fucking go.
