Late Sunday afternoon, after the White House announced Trump had "accepted the resignation of " (rather than fired, a more accurate representation of objective reality) Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, the member of Congress who is often the tip of the spear on progressive immigration policy, Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), released this statement:
Secretary Nielsen will go down in history as presiding over an exceptionally cruel regime that separated children from their parents and violated human rights. I welcome her resignation. But, that does not end our quest for accountability for the abuses that occurred on her watch and at the direction of this president. I hope the next Secretary uses this opportunity to reset the Department’s approach and lead with humane, common-sense immigration policies that are based on American values instead of hate.
Mike Siegel is running for a House seat (TX-10) currently occupied by the congressional architect of Trump's "babies in cages" policy, Michael McCaulI'm certain that Rep. Jayapal knows the Trump is likely to appoint someone even worse than Nielsen as the next head of DHS. Meanwhile, he immediately announced that Kevin McAleenan, the Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, is taking over as Acting DHS Secretary. Remember, this "resignation" Nielsen comes just two days after Señor Trumpanzee, suddenly withdrew his nominee to run ICE-- who had already been given the thumbs up by one of the two Senate committees charged with vetting him-- because he said he wants ICE to go is a "tougher direction." He's been fighting with Nielsen for not being tough enough. Perhaps the cages were too spacious?Babies in Cages by Nancy OhanianEventually her departure will be viewed as part of a total overhaul of DHS engineered by Trump's in-house neo-Nazi, Stephen Miller-- kicking Nielsen out was part of Miller's grand plan. Trump tweeted her resignation before she had a chance to resign; he's a really foul person, although I can't say she hasn't earned the abysmal treatment she's getting from him. This afternoon Miller made his move to purge mainstream conservatives from the DHS so they can be replaced with his kind of neo-fascists. Miller-- de facto immigration czar with no congressional oversight whatsoever-- ordered the ouster of Francis Cissna, the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; Randolph Alles, the Secret Service director; and John Mitnik, the agency’s general counsel. On CNN this morning, Jeffrey Toobin noted that Kirstjen Nielsen "is a great example of what happens when you go to work for Donald Trump. He is the great reputation killer. Here is this woman who was a reasonably admired bureaucrat. For the rest of her life people will look at her and think, 'Oh, that’s the woman who put children in cages.'"CBS News reported that "it is unlikely McAleenan would be nominated as Nielsen's permanent replacement. It's unclear whether he would have to resign as CBP commissioner to take the job, and whether the line of succession at DHS would even allow for such a personnel move. Those legal issues would need to be sorted out."
McAleenan has worked as CBP commissioner since the early days of Mr. Trump's administration, keeping a generally low profile. In a 2018 interview with the New York Times in the height of the concern over family separations at the border, McAleenan called Mr. Trump's attempt to halt the separations with an executive order an "important recalibration."In recent days, Mr. Trump has threatened to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border or slap tariffs on cars made in Mexico coming into the U.S. if Mexico and Congress don't fix the situation at the border.[After Trump publicly humiliated her and threatened to fire her] Nielsen became known for her vigorous defense of the "zero tolerance" policy resulting in family separations at the border, blaming Congress for a "loophole" in the laws that needs to be fixed. Nielsen claimed in a White House briefing last year that the administration was merely continuing a policy from "previous administrations" that mandates separating a child who is "in danger, there is no custodial relationship between 'family' members, or if the adult has broken the law.""As long as illegal entry remains a criminal offense, DHS will not look the other way," Nielsen told reporters at the time.
Revolving Door by Nancy OhanianOne thing we can easily surmise is that Trump, who never had any respect for Nielsen to begin with, didn't fire her because of the horror of the admission to a court last week that his regime says it will take as much as two years to be able to identify 47,000 separated migrant children and return them to their parents. One has to wonder if the evangelicals who are a hefty majority of Trump's base can countenance even that most unholy possible action by their "president" in service to their hopes of overturning Roe v Wade. There doesn't seem to be any bottom at all to their adhesion to what is clearly-- at least to everyone else-- Satan's man on the planet.This morning, NBC reported that the straw the broke the camel's back with Nielsen was Trump's demand-- sounds like Miller's demand-- that the child separation policy being reinstated. NBC's Julia Ainsley and Geoff Bennett reported that Trump has been carrying on about this "for months" and that it wants it reinstated in a big way. Miller has pounded it into Trump's head that the brutality of this policy has been the most effective tool they've deployed at deterring asylum-seekers.And on CNN this morning, Frank Bruni noted that "[Nielsen] will go down more than Rex Tillerson and Jeff Sessions as what it’s like to work for Donald Trump in this administration. Your reputation is shredded. You compromise your principles, and at the end of the day, you end up paranoid... She was paranoid in recent weeks because she saw signs she was going to be canned even though the president wasn’t telling her. How do you work in this administration? It’s an acid bath, not a job... They are at [Trump's] mercy and whims."
