White House Discussing New Job for Secret Service’s Alles, Official Says

(Bloomberg) -- The White House is discussing a new job for Secret Service Director Randolph Alles, who has been asked to resign, according to a senior administration official.

Though Alles was told to prepare for his departure from the Secret Service nearly two weeks ago, President Donald Trump likes him, the official said. Alles may be offered a position within U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where he previously worked, or in another post at Homeland Security.

A Secret Service spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alles announced he would step down a day after Trump asked Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to resign out of frustration over a spike in illegal crossings of the U.S. border with Mexico. Trump and advisers led by Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, are considering the removal of other top officials at the Department of Homeland Security in a purge of the agency’s leadership.

On Friday, Trump withdrew his nomination of Ronald Vitiello to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The president’s moves at DHS have alarmed Republican allies, who question whether Trump has a plan to gain control of migration across the border or is simply creating more vacancies at a government department already short of leadership.

Senator Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, said at a hearing of the Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday that he’s “deeply troubled” by vacancies at the department.

“It is dangerous,” Romney said. “Dangerous given what’s happening at the border, dangerous given the broad responsibilities the Department of Homeland Security has for protecting our nation. It is seriously troubling.”

--With assistance from Daniel Flatley.

To contact the reporter on this story: Margaret Talev in Washington at mtalev@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum

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