Trump Chooses a New Acting Homeland Security Chief
Trump Chooses a New Acting Homeland Security Chief
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump has chosen a new acting secretary of Homeland Security, who will become the latest person to oversee the administration’s hard-line immigration policies.
Chad Wolf will take over the department when Kevin McAleenan, the outgoing acting secretary, leaves after Nov. 11, Veterans Day, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said on Friday night.
Wolf now leads the department’s policy office on an acting basis and served as chief of staff to former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who was forced out in April. He was a registered lobbyist before joining the Trump administration.
McAleenan praised Wolf’s selection, saying his experience at the department will be “invaluable.”
“He is a proven, thoughtful, and principled executive and I am confident he will serve the president and the American people well as acting secretary,” McAleenan said in a statement Saturday.
Gidley declined to say who the president might nominate to lead the department permanently.
Trump and his allies have pushed for a supporter of his immigration policies, but have encountered legal obstacles.
He announced McAleenan’s departure in a Oct. 11 tweet, saying that the acting secretary wanted to “spend more time with his family and go to the private sector.”
McAleenan had become frustrated over the emergence of several Trump immigration officials whom he complained had made it difficult to control the department’s messaging.
“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,” McAleenan told The Washington Post. “That’s uncomfortable, as the accountable, senior figure.”
The position of secretary of Homeland Security -- a sprawling cabinet department in charge of a huge portfolio of issues including cyber security, disaster response and the U.S. Coast Guard -- has become a revolving door largely because of the Trump White House’s laser focus on immigration.
McAleenan, a career government official who was leading U.S. Customs and Border Protection, replaced Nielsen, who resigned in April days after Trump declared he wanted to pursue a “tougher direction” on immigration.
Her departure set in motion a purge engineered by White House policy adviser Stephen Miller, who has sought to install top officials who will speed up the approval of rules making it more difficult to legally and illegally immigrate to the U.S.
In addition to the position of Homeland Security secretary, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are all led by officials on an acting basis after their directors resigned or were forced out.
Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, was under consideration to be appointed as acting secretary of Homeland Security, according to the Wall Street Journal. But his appointment had been held up by rules that prevent an official who has not been confirmed by the Senate to lead the department on an acting basis.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann
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