WASHINGTON -- Kevin McAleenan is stepping down from his post as acting secretary of the Department Homeland Security after six months on the job, President Donald Trump announced Friday. McAleenan said he was leaving on his own terms.
McAleenan had managed a border crisis that quieted down recently after crackdowns and policies restricting asylum that he helped enact.
Trump said McAleenan was leaving to spend more time with his family and go to the private sector. No replacement was yet named in the department, which has seen its ranks decimated through firings and resignations. The acting homeland security deputy is the head of the Transportation Security Administration.
McAleenan's departure came as something of a surprise.
It creates another top-level vacancy in Trump's Cabinet -- at the department responsible not only for immigration enforcement but also for helping states secure elections.
"We have worked well together with Border Crossings being Way down," Trump tweeted
He took over in April after Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen quit; he was the fourth person to lead the department in two years.
The longtime U.S. Customs and Border Protection official was seen as a level head who could effectively manage the border crisis.
His tenure was marked by internal squabbling and jockeying by others in the department vying for top jobs, all playing out amid reports of children being held in squalid conditions and images of those who perished trying to make the trek into the U.S.
McAleenan spent a lot of time south of the border, working on brokering major agreements with Central American countries on asylum, including El Salvador.
A program that has turned away some 42,000 migrants to await their asylum claims in Mexico expanded under his watch. And the Trump administration also restricted asylum at the southern border, making anyone who crossed through a third country on their way to the U.S. ineligible.
But in an interview with The Washington Post earlier this month, McAleenan said he found himself isolated in the Trump administration and that he did not have the authority he needed within his own department.
In August, he became the target of intense criticism over the timing of immigration raids at food processing plants in Mississippi that took place days after a gunman in El Paso, Texas, killed 22 people at a Walmart, and apparently had singled out Hispanics.
Asked on NBC's Meet the Press whether he wished the raids hadn't happened after the shooting, McAleenan said "the timing was unfortunate."
He added that the operation "was done with sensitivity" -- with caseworkers on hand, and agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at local schools as liaisons.
McAleenan, a lawyer who practiced in California before taking a series of government jobs, issued a statement that he posted on Twitter shortly after Trump's announcement Friday night.
"I want to thank the president for the opportunity to serve alongside the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security. With his support, over the last 6 months, we have made tremendous progress mitigating the border security and humanitarian crisis we faced this year, by reducing unlawful crossings, partnering with governments in the region to counter human smugglers and address the causes of migration and deploy additional border security resources," he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Colleen Long of The Associated Press; and by John Harney of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 10/12/2019