President Donald Trump’s recent leadership purge at the Department of Homeland Security points to a White House policy that demands more determined action.
Despite the president enlisting National Guard personnel and U.S. military forces to support border agents combating the surging waves of illegal immigrants, the White House appears to be losing the crisis at the southern border on two fronts. Migrant caravans continue to overwhelm Custom and Border Protection efforts, and the Trump Administration’s handling of the crisis has taken a beating in the mainstream media.
With seemingly no choice but to call up a tougher “bad cop” to crack down on illegal immigration, President Trump recently toppled Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Expecting to be dismissed from her post, Nielsen arrived resignation in hand when recently summoned to the Oval Office.
“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,” Nielsen’s letter read.
While the left-leaning media tries to characterize the dismissal as Trump trying to play a game of one-upmanship, administration officials are generally aware they face termination before arriving in front of most presidents. That being said, Nielsen provided determined leadership at one of the nation’s most controversial positions. The DHS and affiliated ICE agency face substantial political pushback from Democrats who advocate for open borders and sanctuary cities. Fighting the good fight may have played well in the Obama Administration, but President Trump demands results.
Under Secretary Nielsen, data indicates that more than 1 million illegals could penetrate American sovereignty by year’s end. March alone saw upwards of 92,000 illegals apprehended while trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. That figure represents an increase of more than one-third from the previous month. Mingled throughout those stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol were nearly 9,000 unaccompanied minors.
And human traffickers taking advantage of children has resulted in a particularly sharp edge for the Trump Administration. The left-leaning and fake news media were complicit in assisting Democrats to perpetuate a false story that the Trump Administration had constructed cages to hold children. The fact these detention facilities took years for the Obama Administration to build was never fully corrected by Nielsen and DHS officials.
“Take a look. The press knows it. You know it. We all know it,” Pres. Trump reportedly said. “Those cages that were shown, I think they were very inappropriate, they were built by President Obama’s administration. Not by Trump. I’m the one that stopped it. President Obama had child separation.”
The outgoing director fought honorably, but lost too much public sentiment on the issue.
On the heels of his DHS leadership purge, Pres. Trump is in no way looking for a softer, gentler approach to immigration. Reports are already swirling that he will implement decisively more stringent policies to combat the flow of illegals.
Some possibilities that are being circulated include indefinite detention while immigration and asylum cases are being processed or litigated. And, delivering a surge of immigration officials and judges to the border to fast-track cases. The vast majority of asylum applications are declined. Washington-insiders are also anticipating that Pres. Trump could tap a hardliner to serve as an “immigration czar.”
Should the president move in that direction, White House advisor Stephen Miller reportedly said that person would “coordinate the president’s immigration policies across various federal agencies.”
Miller has been viewed as an anti-immigration hardliner himself, and ardent support of the president’s policies. He frequently takes on the left-leaning media on network television and delivers forceful, fact-based arguments about immigration and other Trump Administration policies. Some liberals have insinuated that Miller is secretly behind the tough policies.
“Only one person in this U.S. government runs immigration policy: President Donald Trump,” Miller reportedly said pushing back on CNN.
At least for the time being, President Trump has tapped immigration tough guy Kevin McAleenan to take over the DHS. Upwards of 22 agencies report to the Homeland secretary, including the recently purged Secret Service.
As the country’s top border officer, McAleenan had already been a strong proponent of President Trump’s policy of making immigrants wait in Mexico for their applications to be reviewed.
“It’s not turning people away, it’s asking them to wait,” McAleenan said.
He also testified before Congress that economic and other support to Central American countries is critical to stemming the illegal immigration tide. President Trump has temporarily cut off aid in an effort to motivate Central American leaders to work with the U.S. on the migrant problem. But when working for Trump, you either get the job done or “you’re fired!”
~ Liberty Planet
