After Kirstjen Nielsen’s ouster, chief of U.S. Customs and Border Protection steps into leading role for president’s immigration policy — one of the most difficult jobs in Washington.
Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, speaks at the border in El Paso on March 27. President Trump has put him in charge of the Department of Homeland Security following the ouster of Kirstjen Nielsen. One of the most difficult jobs in Washington now belongs to Kevin McAleenan, who President Trump is placing in charge of the Department of Homeland Security after the ouster of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Sunday.
“When I look back on my lengthy career, I can count on one hand the number of people whose intelligence, honesty and intellect I have the upmost respect and admiration for, and Kevin is one of them,” Gil Kerlikowske, who served as CBP commissioner during Obama’s second term, when McAleenan was his deputy, said Sunday evening. “I’m glad he’ll be there as acting secretary, but he’ll be in an incredibly difficult position, and I don’t envy him at all.
“If they don’t have a valid claim, we’ll repatriate,” McAleenan said. “If they do, they’ll be released with the certainty that they have asylum with the ability to plan, to invest in a business, to make these choices for schools. Right now, they don’t have that. They live with uncertainty for years at a time because the system is broken and overwhelmed.”
Whether that is what the president and his top immigration adviser Stephen Miller are looking for on a long-term basis is not clear. It is McAleenan’s relatively favorable reputation among Democrats and his ties to the Obama administration that have also made him unpopular with those who want someone more hawkish in the DHS role, whose messaging will be consistent with the president’s.
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