Free Republic

President Trump announced Sunday afternoon that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen "will be leaving her position" after 16 months in the job. Trump also announced that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan will replace Nielsen as acting secretary, tweeting: "I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job!" ... 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 On Friday, Trump confirmed he had withdrawn the nomination of acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Ron Vitiello to become the permanent head...

The fast-growing migrant rush over the U.S. border is collapsing border security and overwhelming the ability of border agents to process and protect migrants, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a Thursday letter to all members of Congress. “We face a system-wide meltdown … We are witnessing the real-time dissolution of the immigration system,” the head of the Department of Homeland Security wrote March 28 in a six-page letter. She added that she will soon ask for an emergency funding bill: I will be working with the Office of Management and Budget to provide you additional details in the near...

House Democrats on Tuesday failed to garner the votes needed to override Trump’s veto of a bill blocking his emergency border wall funding. Only a handful of Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats on the 248-181 vote. That deprived the measure of the two-thirds majority needed to revoke Trump’s February emergency declaration that authorized him to move $3.6 billion in military funds to a southern border wall project. The defeat, which was widely anticipated, kills the effort in Congress to block Trump’s wall funding grab, but numerous court challenges to the declaration are now pending and could ultimately...

(WASHINGTON) — An effort by House Democrats to override President Donald Trump’s first veto has failed. That hands him a victory because his declaration of a national emergency at the Southwest border will remain in effect. The Democratic-controlled chamber has voted 248-181 in favor of overriding Trump’s veto. That fell 38 votes short of the 286 needed

'The president has made this a priority,' Nielsen says. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the debate over President Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the southern border boils down to "pretty simple calculus." Twelve Senate Republicans joined the Democrats' effort last week to block Trump's emergency declaration, including the party's 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney. The resolution, which the president vetoed the following day, would have blocked Trump from seizing billions of dollars intended for other projects in order to pay for his long-promised border wall. "Did the president have authority to issue the emergency? He did. It's...

President Trump on Monday revealed he donated a quarter of his $400,000 salary to the Department of Homeland Security. "While the press doesn't like writing about it, nor do I need them to, I donate my yearly Presidential salary of $400,000.00 to different agencies throughout the year, this to Homeland Security," Trump tweeted. "If I didn't do it there would be hell to pay from the FAKE NEWS MEDIA!" Trump posted a photo of the check, which was dated March 12 and paid to the order of the Department of Homeland Security. It was signed by Trump, whose address was...

<p>A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from denying asylum to migrants who illegally cross into the United States, saying the policy likely violated federal law on asylum eligibility.</p> <p>The judge pointedly denied the claim that the president, by fiat, could give the manner of entry added legal weight as a determinant of asylum. He reasoned that the “interpretive guide” of United Nations compacts on asylum lent extra force to congressional requirements. The intent of Congress, Tigar wrote, was “unambiguous.”</p>

President Trump on Friday signed into law a bill that cements the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) role as the main agency overseeing civilian cybersecurity, with a focus on securing federal networks and protecting critical infrastructure from cyber threats. The cybersecurity branch known as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) will now be elevated to the same stature as other units within DHS, such as Secret Service or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The bill Trump signed Friday, which unanimously passed the House earlier this week, also rebrands DHS’ main cybersecurity unit, known as National Protection and Programs...

Hours after images of migrants climbing a border wall in San Diego went viral, the Homeland Security Department deployed razor wire Wednesday to prevent a repeat. The immigrants, who said they were the vanguard of the caravans streaming north through Mexico, ascended the fence Tuesday in a display of defiance. Video and photos showed them cheering and jeering atop the slat-style fence. Although no arrests or confrontations were reported, Homeland Security took immediate steps to try to keep others from climbing by deploying concertina wire, which coils over itself, creating a thorough barrier. “As we have said repeatedly, being a...

Tuesday’s midterm elections will be the “most secure” elections in U.S. history, according to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, though the U.S. government remains on high alert for any election-related mischief. “This is going to be the most secure election we’ve ever had,” Nielsen told the audience at a Council on Foreign Relations event on Friday. “But as we all know, this is a dynamic threat, it changes by the minute.” Nielsen said that “as of today,” DHS has not seen a coordinated attempt by a foreign government to interfere in American voting infrastructure, such as voter databases, polling...

PRAGUE — The U.S. military has already begun delivering jersey barriers to the southern border in conjunction with plans to deploy active duty troops there, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Sunday as a caravan of Central Americans slowly heads across Mexico toward the United States.Mattis told reporters traveling with him that details of the deployment are still being worked out but he should have them Sunday night. They will include exactly how many forces are needed.The additional troops will provide logistical and other support to the Border Patrol, and will bolster the efforts of the approximately 2,000 National Guard...

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said "everything is on the table" with regard to border security during the unveiling of a border wall project in California on Friday. There is a photo of the wall at the link. This is a real wall. Looks impressive. Check it out.

Donald Trump has ordered the military to be on alert over a US-bound migrant caravan as he declared a national emergency. Referring to the caravan from Honduras, the president tweeted: "Sadly, it looks like Mexico's Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States. "I have alerted Border patrol and Military that this is a National Emergency." He added that the US would begin "cutting off, or substantially reducing aid" to three Central American countries.

Thousands of illegal aliens are swarming the Texas border this month in advance of the migrant caravan marching through Mexico, prompting Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla, Jr., the Customs and Border Patrol Sector Chief of the Rio Grande Valley, to beg for help dealing with the onslaught of illegal aliens, gang members and drug cartel smugglers. Just on Saturday over 700 illegal aliens were caught, with over 12,000 caught in the past three weeks. In addition, safe houses have been busted and drug smugglers intercepted by the overstretched CBP in the Rio Grande Valley. 16,000 “family units” were reported caught...

President Donald Trump has approved a new U.S. counterterrorism strategy, but it drops the Obama administration’s treatment of climate change as a driver of violent Islamic extremist groups. Asked if the Trump plan identifies climate change as a destabilizing force in the Middle East that fuels extremist groups, national security adviser John Bolton replied: “I don’t think climate change is a cause of international terrorism.” In a December 2016 speech about his administration’s strategy for countering violent extremist groups, President Barack Obama included climate change as an ingredient that helps lead to terrorism. “Long-term corruption has rotted too many nation-states...

A union representing the country's 350 immigration judges slammed Attorney General Jeff Sessions for comments he made that suggested they were sidestepping the law and showing too much sympathy when handling certain cases. “When we depart from the law and create nebulous legal standards out of a sense of sympathy for the personal circumstances of a respondent in our immigration courts, we do violence to the rule of law and constitutional fabric that bind this great nation," Sessions said Monday in a speech to newly hired judges. "Your job is to apply the law — even in tough cases." Immigration...

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Thursday signed an executive order declaring that the city jail will no longer accept people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "Atlanta has permanently ended its acceptance of ICE detainees and will immediately transfer all those remaining out of our City jail," Bottoms tweeted with a photo of her signing the order. "We will not be complicit in an immigration policy that intentionally inflicts misery on vulnerable populations." A spokesperson for ICE confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that all of the agency's detainees at the Atlanta City Detention Center would be transferred by...

GRAND ISLAND — During a multi-state operation led by special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a series of criminal arrest warrants were executed Wednesday for 17 individuals connected to an alleged criminal conspiracy to exploit illegal alien laborers for profit, fraud, wire fraud and money laundering in Nebraska and Minnesota. In addition to these arrest warrants, authorities also served search warrants for worksite hiring violations at agricultural firms in Nebraska and Minnesota, and federal document search warrants at locations throughout Nebraska, in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota; Appleton, Minnesota; and Las Vegas, Nevada. During this...

Federal authorities Thursday announced the arrest of 13 people they say were ringleaders in a massive scheme to exploit illegal immigrants as cheap labor on farms and Hispanic-oriented businesses in Minnesota and Nebraska. They also carried out search warrants on 11 of the businesses Wednesday and nabbed 133 illegal immigrant workers they found at the time. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they suspect some of the migrants were coerced into working in rough conditions, either by force or threats of being reported to authorities for deportation...

A federal judge on Friday said the government must restart the entire DACA deportation amnesty, including accepting brand new applications — but gave the administration a chance to appeal before his ruling takes effect. The ruling by Judge John D. Bates is a major blow to President Trump, and creates even more confusion about his immigration policy. Judge Bates said Mr. Trump and his Homeland Security Department do have the power to revoke the Obama-era DACA program, but they cut too many corners in the way they tried to do it.