Too late to do anyone any good, Trump Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned this afternoon during a Sunday meeting with Donald Trump. In a tweet, Trump identified Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan as acting DHS secretary until a replacement can be confirmed.
Nielsen had been widely criticized for her defenses of the administration's "zero tolerance" policy for asylum seekers, leading to a dramatic escalation in the number of children taken from their parents to be held in separate detention camps. She also came under fire after multiple deaths of immigrant children in federal custody. She has also been a reliable conduit for administration-pushed false claims and conspiracy theories.
CBS News reports that the move appears to be "part of a larger overhaul" of the department by Trump and top aide Stephen Miller, an obsessive pursuer of anti-immigrant white nationalist policies. On Friday, Trump withdrew the nomination of proposed ICE director Ron Vitiello, saying he now wanted to go in a "tougher direction."
It is likely, then, that Nielsen was forced to resign not for her false claims to Congress, the cruelty with which her department instituted child separation policies or the gross indifference of the department to reunification efforts afterwards, but because Trump is now looking to replace her with someone who will institute even more aggressive and inhumane policies.
Sunday, Apr 7, 2019 · 10:21:48 PM +00:00 · Hunter
Don’t get too attached to acting DHS Secretary McAleenan: Greg Sargent points out that he has “repeatedly called for continued aid” as “key to solving the migrant crisis”—in direct opposition to Trump’s own demands to slash that aid. Trump and Miller are likely to shove him aside with all possible haste.