Kirstjen Nielsen resigns from the office of Secretary of U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
The President of United States (U.S.) – Donald Trump has announced that the Secretary of U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – Kirstjen Nielsen has resigned from her post.
The 46 years old Kirstjen Nielsen had joined the office in December 2017 and became a face of President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration push.
The move comes 2 days after Donald Trump had inspected the U.S. – Mexico Border Wall. Trump was seriously frustrated with the situation at the border, which has witnessed a large influx of migrants, predominantly from Northern Triangle countries. Trump was not happy with the way she was taking up the entire issue of Trump’s promised wall.
Donald Trump tweeted, “Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service. I am pleased to announce that Kevin McAleenan, the current U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, will become Acting Secretary for @DHSgov. I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job!”
According to the sources, Nielsen didn’t resign willingly. She was forced to do. She would be holding office for a week to ensure smooth transition to McAleenan – the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security. McAleenan was sworn in on March 20, 2018, as Commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection. He will serve as the acting secretary for a short term.
In her resignation letter, Nielsen wrote, “I hereby resign from the position of Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), effective April 7th 2019. Despite our progress in reforming homeland security for a new age, I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside. I hope that the next Secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts in fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure America’s borders and which have contributed to discord in our nation’s discourse.”
The DHS termed her tenure as a complete failure.
The DHS Committee Chairman – Bennie Thompson, said, “Hampered by misstep after misstep, Kirstjen Nielsen’s tenure at the Department of Homeland Security was a disaster from the start. It is clearer now than ever that the Trump Administration’s border security and immigration policies – that she enacted and helped craft – have been an abysmal failure and have helped create the humanitarian crisis at the border.”
Besides, Donald Trump ha earlier declared a national emergency, in a bid to unlock billions of federal funds, to finance his U.S. – Mexico border wall. Trump declared the emergency despite signing the spending bill from Congress which allocated U.S. $ 1.375 billion for constructing 55 miles of the wall, which is U.S. $ 5.7 billion less than what Trump had demanded.
