Terrorists' at the Border? To Please Donald Trump, Homeland Security Tweaked Reports

[Nevilledog]

https://www.newsweek.com/terrorists-border-please-donald-trump-homeland-security-tweaked-reports-1648664



Continual role-changes and chaos at the Department of Homeland Security essentially destroyed the department's ability to secure the homeland. On November 15, for example, Chad Wolf was stripped of power. A federal judge in New York City ruled that Wolf was unlawfully serving as the Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, violating the rules of succession and the Vacancies Reform Act. His orders, therefore, the judge said, particularly those relating to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, were "not an exercise of legal authority," nullifying the Trump administration's suspension of the program.

It was the latest court ruling against Donald Trump's attempt to undo the Obama-era program that shielded about 650,000 young immigrants who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children from being deported. Earlier in June, the Supreme Court dismissed the administration's attempt to cancel DACA, saying that Trump's reasoning was "arbitrary and capricious." President-elect Joe Biden had already announced that he planned to reinstate DACA and reverse other Trump administration immigration actions.

Wolf, a fierce Trump loyalist, had risen from chief of staff at TSA to deputy chief of staff, to being acting chief of staff before moving to the secretary's office and becoming Chief of Staff to Kirstjen Nielsen, all in the first year of Donald Trump's presidency. He then became acting Undersecretary of Homeland Security for Strategy, Policy, and Plans and then the Senior Official Performing the duties of the Undersecretary, the political commissar of the department. While working for the new secretary, he was point man on immigration and the border wall.

Nielsen soon stumbled over her claims about how many terrorists had crossed the southern border, trying to justify the wall. She said that 3,755 "known and suspected terrorists" had been intercepted, and that an average of 10 individuals a day on the terrorist watch list were trying to enter the United States.

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