Call it the Monday Afternoon Massacre. After firing Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen on Sunday, President Donald Trump purged the agency’s senior management on Monday. According to CBS News, Trump secured the resignation of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Lee Cissna, DHS Undersecretary for Management Claire Grady, and DHS General Counsel John Mitnick. He also fired U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles. Trump adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, reportedly masterminded the DHS purge as part of an effort to crack down on immigration at the southern border. Advertisement Just how much worse, though, can Trump’s immigration policies get? The president, after all, persuaded Nielsen to carry out Trump’s ghastly family separation policy at the southern border (while publicly claiming that the policy did not exist). During her tenure, Nielsen also designed a plan that strictly limited the number of asylum-seekers allowed to enter the United States. And she implemented what was ultimately ruled to be an unlawful policy to prevent immigrants from applying for asylum if they entered the country illegally. The New York Times reports that Nielsen drew the line at Trump’s “clearly illegal” demands, including “blocking all migrants from seeking asylum.” She also reportedly refused to resume family separations, despite Trump’s entreaties, because she did not want to violate a court order that currently prohibits the practice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nielsen, in other words, carried Trump’s immigration crackdown as far as she could without risking contempt of court. Under her leadership, the agency engaged in horrific human rights abuses and violence against innocent migrants, including children. Nonetheless, it could, indeed, get worse. Trump’s “near-systematic purge” at “the nation’s second-largest national security agency,” as one senior administration official put it to CNN, is an ominous indication that Trump will now brook no independent judgment at DHS. He wants an agency that does exactly what he asks. And what he asks is frequently cruel, brutal, and lawless. Consider the coup that Miller allegedly engineered on Monday. Under federal law, the DHS undersecretary for management should have become acting DHS secretary when Nielsen resigns later this week. As of Monday morning, Claire Grady filled that position. A career civil servant who previously worked at the Department of Defense and the Coast Guard, Grady specializes in weapons acquisitions. She also served as acting deputy DHS secretary, working on immigration and counterterrorism issues. An apolitical defense expert, Grady was perfectly qualified to lead DHS until Congress confirmed a new secretary. Advertisement But Trump didn’t want Grady; he wanted Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. It’s easy to see why. Under McAleenan’s leadership, CBP repeatedly broke the law to implement Trump’s first travel ban, earning a rebuke from DHS’ Office of Inspector General. McAleenan is a strong proponent of a border wall as well as new laws to curb asylum-seekers’ entry into the country. He infamously failed to inform Congress that a 7-year-old girl died in CBP custody when he testified before the Senate just three days after her death. Advertisement To elevate McAleenan, Trump simply ousted Grady, then ignored the line of succession to leapfrog McAleenan to the head of DHS. (An Obama-era executive order allows him to do just that.) McAleenan appears eager to resume family separations, speaking vaguely of a “binary choice” that would let migrant parents either surrender their children to CBP or go into long-term detention as a family. This pseudo-compromise is really just an effort to get around a court order that has blocked family separations since June (though they have continued in smaller numbers). Advertisement Trump and Miller plainly expect that McAleenan will rubber-stamp illegal policies that Nielsen was unwilling to execute. Presumably, they hope McAleenan will approve Trump’s idea of expanded family separation, which CNN’s Jake Tapper reported on Monday. Tapper wrote that Trump wants families separated even if they enter the U.S. at a port of entry and are legally seeking asylum. (“He just wants to separate families,” a senior administration official said.) Nielsen refused to carry out this policy, which reportedly contributed to her termination. “At the end of the day,” the administration official told Tapper, “the President refuses to understand that the Department of Homeland Security is constrained by the laws.” Given that McAleenan refused to let CBP be constrained by the laws during the first travel ban, Trump may hope he will take the step that Nielsen would not and defy the courts to punish migrants. Advertisement Advertisement It’s more difficult to understand why Trump fired Cissna and Mitnick, aside from general dissatisfaction with the direction of the agency. (Similarly, no one seems to know why he fired Alles, the Secret Service chief.) Cissna, in particular, was an efficient hawk who successfully limited the number of immigrants allowed in the country. It was Cissna who gutted the U.S. refugee program and beefed up the denaturalization task force while making it easier for the government to initiate deportation proceedings and deny visas to foreign nationals. Cissna also spearheaded the “public charge” rule, which would deny green cards to immigrants if their family members use a public benefit, including food stamps. Shortly before his termination, Politico reported that Miller asked Cissna “to launch more experimentally and legally questionable policies,” but Cissna declined “to overstep legal boundaries.” His effective efforts to curb immigration and penalize immigrants could not spare him from the purge. If Nielsen and Cissna were not sufficiently extreme, it is alarming to consider what might come after them. Both bent the law as far as they could to implement hugely controversial and frequently vicious policies to further Trump’s nativist goals. It wasn’t enough for the president. With their ousters, DHS is entering a new era, one in which the agency will do whatever Donald Trump and Stephen Miller think it can get away with.<doc-sep>More top Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials are leaving the Trump administration, two senior administration officials said Monday, increasing the leadership vacuum at DHS as Washington grapples with the news of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's resignation. U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph "Tex" Alles was fired Monday, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Lee Cissna, DHS undersecretary for management Claire Grady and DHS general counsel John Mitnick are also leaving the administration. The officials' departures are part of a system-wide purge of senior management at DHS as top Trump adviser Stephen Miller looks to overhaul immigration-related policy and personnel. Alles learned from the White House that he would be part of a mass overhaul of DHS leadership a few weeks ago. The notification came prior to the security incident at Mar-a-Lago on March 30, a law enforcement official told CBS News. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed in a statement that Alles will leave "shortly" and James M. Murray, a career Secret Service member, will take over in May. One Secret Service source described Murray as a "good pick." "United States Secret Service director Randolph 'Tex' Alles has done a great job at the agency over the last two years, and the president is thankful for his over 40 years of service to the country," Sanders said. "Mr. Alles will be leaving shortly and President Trump has selected James M. Murray, a career member of the USSS, to take over as director beginning in May." Alles' wife, Sarah Alles, told reporters, "We're very proud of the Secret Service. The agents are very professional, so pleased he was able to serve. They serve the nation well." Grady was the official standing in the way in December when the president wanted to oust Nielsen. The president would have had to place Grady in charge of DHS, given that she was the most senior Senate-confirmed official there. A source on the House Homeland Security Committee says Chairman Bennie Thompson, whose responsibility it is to oversee DHS, was given no heads up on the departures. It's unclear if the White House gave Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, a Republican, any heads up. These departures also come as Mr. Trump announced last week he wants to go in a "tougher" direction than his original pick for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tom Vitiello. Mr. Trump has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the flow of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, and his top officials' inability to fix the matter. In recent days, he has threatened to close the border, or at least large parts of it, if he doesn't get what he wants. Arden Farhi and Kathryn Watson contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Trump has suggested to aides in recent weeks that the administration’s previous policy of separating families at the border could be used to deter crossings and that a version of the policy could be reinstated, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. Some aides have resisted the idea of family separations, citing the public backlash last summer and noting that Trump himself reversed it.<doc-sep>
U.S. Secret Service Director Randolph ‘Tex’ Alles is stepping down from his post, officials said Monday, in the latest shake-up at the Department of Homeland Security following outgoing Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s resignation. Sources told Fox News on Monday that Alles was notified 10 days ago to "prepare an exit plan," in a signal that a transition in leadership at the Department of Homeland Security was imminent. Alles was told that he should be prepared to leave his post as head of the Secret Service as part of that transition. “United States Secret Service director Randolph 'Tex' Alles has done a great job at the agency over the last two years, and the President is thankful for his over 40 years of service to the country," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a brief statement Monday. KIRSTJEN NIELSEN MAKES FIRST PUBLIC COMMENTS AFTER RESIGNATION AS DHS BOSS She said that Trump has picked career Secret Service member James M. Murray to take over the agency in May. Alles will remain in his role until then. A law enforcement official told Fox News that, inside the agency, the news of Alles' departure came as a surprise. Alles’ departure comes on the heels of Nielsen’s resignation and, according to a source, has nothing to do with the recent Mar-a-Lago incident, in which a woman was arrested at the president’s Florida property after allegedly carrying two Chinese passports and malware. KEVIN MCALEENAN, NEW ACTING DHS BOSS, HAS LONG RECORD IN BORDER SECURITY Nielsen and President Trump met at the White House on Sunday -- after which the president announced that Nielsen would leave her post as head of DHS. Trump also announced that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would be appointed as acting DHS secretary. Later, Nielsen tweeted that she had submitted her resignation. “Its[sic] been an honor of a lifetime to serve with the brave men and women of @DHSgov. I could not be prouder of and more humbled by their service, dedication, and commitment to keep our country safe from all threats and hazards,” she tweeted with an image of the resignation letter. The letter, addressed to the president, said: “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 resignation came amid an influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Associated Press reported that Nielsen had been frustrated with the difficulty of getting other departments to help to deal with the growing number of families crossing the border. But administration officials told Fox News on Sunday that Nielsen’s background in cybersecurity made her a poor fit to handle border issues, while McAleenan best fits Trump’s requirement of being the “toughest cop” on the frontier. Sources told Fox News that Nielsen had been viewed as resistant to some of the immigration measures pushed by the president and his aides, specifically related to protected status for some refugees and policies at the border. A senior administration official told Fox News that National Security Adviser John Bolton long felt that Nielsen was not the right person for the job Nielsen served as the head of DHS for 16 months, following the appointment of former DHS Secretary John Kelly to be White House chief of staff. Kelly has since resigned from the administration. Nielsen's departure is the latest staffing shakeup in the department, which was founded to combat terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. On Friday, Trump confirmed he had withdrawn the nomination of acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Ron Vitiello to become the permanent head of the agency, telling reporters that "Ron’s a good man, but we’re going in a tougher direction, we want to go in a tougher direction." Administration sources tell Fox News that the withdrawal of Vitiello's nomination was the first step in Trump's plan to control the border crisis. The second step was asking for Nielsen's resignation. Fox News' Samuel Chamberlain and The Associated Press contributed to this report.