Tag Archives: Homeland Security

NBC News reports: The Trump administration is pulling $271 million in funding from the Department of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, to pay for immigration detention space and temporary hearing locations for asylum-seekers who have been forced to wait in Mexico, according to department officials and a letter sent to the agency by a …

The Guardian reports: The Trump administration unveiled a regulation on Wednesday that would allow it to detain indefinitely migrant families who cross the border illegally, replacing a decades-old court agreement that imposed a limit on how long the government could hold migrant children in custody and specified the level of care they must receive. The White House has for more …

CNN reports: White House officials rebuffed efforts by their colleagues at the Department of Homeland Security for more than a year to make combating domestic terror threats, such as those from white supremacists, a greater priority as specifically spelled out in the National Counterterrorism Strategy, current and former senior administration officials as well as other sources close to the Trump …

NBC News reports: The Department of Homeland Security is requesting $232 million from the Transportation Security Administration to fund border operations in the event that Congress does not agree to fund $1.1 billion of its funding request, according to documents of a contingency plan obtained by NBC News. Other components of DHS, which includes the Federal Emergency Management Administration, have …

Stephen Miller’s reign of terror marches on: The acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Ron Vitiello, has resigned amid an agency-wide restructuring of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  Vitiello had originally been nominated to take over the post permanently, but his nomination was abruptly pulled last week by President Trump, who said he wanted to go …

The Kansas City Star reports: One of the GOP senators from Kris Kobach’s home state said Tuesday that the Senate would not be able to confirm the Kansas Republican if President Donald Trump tapped him for a cabinet post. Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state, has been mentioned as a potential candidate for an array of immigration-related positions after …

Mediaite reports: Stephen Miller, the senior advisor to President Donald Trump, would have a sneaky way to ruin the day of Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and get her to stop resisting new immigration policy proposals. Quartz reports “former agency officials,” said Miller would leak the monthly number of immigrants apprehended at the border and those seeking asylum to …

The Daily Beast reports: A day after Kirstjen Nielsen’s abrupt departure as Homeland Security secretary, former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach essentially auditioned for her old job by showing up on one of President Trump’s favorite cable news programs for an interview. During Monday night’s appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Kobach—who previously vice-chaired Trump’s now-shuttered voter fraud commission — …

Standard vindictive Trump behavior: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen brought her resignation letter with her when she met President Trump in the White House residence yesterday afternoon, top sources tell Axios. She wasn’t intent on quitting but was prepared to, sources tell us. The meeting went poorly, and Trump didn’t even let her announce her “resignation.” While she was racing …

The New York Times reports: The president called Ms. Nielsen at home early in the mornings to demand that she take action to stop migrants from entering the country, including doing things that were clearly illegal, such as blocking all migrants from seeking asylum. She repeatedly noted the limitations imposed on her department by federal laws, court settlements and international …

The Daily Beast reports: The Department of Homeland Security has disbanded a group of intelligence analysts who focused on domestic terrorism, The Daily Beast has learned. Numerous current and former DHS officials say they find the development concerning, as the threat of homegrown terrorism—including white supremacist terrorism—is growing. In the wake of this move, officials said the number of analytic …

San Diego’s NBC affiliate reports: Documents obtained by NBC 7 Investigates show the U.S. government created a secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers tied to the migrant caravan and in some cases, placed alerts on their passports. As the migrant caravan reached the San Ysidro Port of Entry in south San Diego County, so did journalists, attorneys, …

The New York Times reports: Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, on Wednesday implored Congress to confront what she called a “humanitarian catastrophe” on the southern border by supporting President Trump’s call for a border wall and changing laws to crack down on asylum-seekers and illegal border-crossers. In her first congressional appearance since Democrats took control of the House, Ms. …

The Daily Beast reports: Two teams of federal officials assembled to fight foreign election interference are being dramatically downsized, according to three current and former Department of Homeland Security officials. And now, those sources say they fear the department won’t prepare adequately for election threats in 2020. “The clear assessment from the intelligence community is that 2020 is going to …

CNN reports: Former White House chief of staff John Kelly and the other four former secretaries of homeland security sent President Donald Trump and Congress a letter Wednesday calling for full department funding and an end to the monthlong partial government shutdown. “As former secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), we write to you today with a simple …

The Associated Press reports: U.S. Customs and Border Protection has ordered medical checks on every child in its custody after an 8-year-old boy from Guatemala died, marking the second death of an immigrant child in the agency’s care this month. The death came during an ongoing dispute over border security and with a partial government shutdown underway over President Donald …

Talking Points Memo reports: While addressing a question about the death of a 7-year-old migrant girl — who died of shock and dehydration while in Border Patrol custody — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen harped on the “dangers of this journey.” She called the death “heart-wrenching,” but said it was “a very sad example” of what can happen …

Buzzfeed News reports: The Trump administration is considering charging immigrants a fee to apply for asylum protection in the United States, according to sources close to the administration. The proposal, included in a not-yet-finalized draft regulation, would charge applicants, if they are already residing in the US, $50 to apply for asylum. Currently, there is no fee to enter an …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump has told advisers he has decided to remove Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and her departure from the administration is likely to occur in the coming weeks, if not sooner, according to five current and former White House officials. Trump canceled a planned trip with Nielsen this week to visit U.S. troops at the …

Axios reports: The Trump administration has posted a new regulation that will allow President Trump, via proclamation, to prohibit certain immigrants from seeking asylum, senior administration officials told reporters Thursday afternoon. This will allow Trump to block any immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally from receiving asylum, and comes as a caravan of Central Americans makes its way toward the …