CONFIRMED: Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf is resigning effecting 11:59 p.m. tonight. Wolf tells staff that the decision is due to court rulings.
Several federal courts have found his appointment illegal.
"I am saddened to take this step, as it was my intention to serve the Department until the end of this Administration. Unfortunately, this action is warranted by recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as Acting Sec"
This comes days after President Trump withdrew Wolf's nomination in the senate.
It also means that Pete Gaynor, the FEMA administrator, will now be acting secretary.
The phrasing in the resignation letter is strange.
"Unfortunately, this action is warranted by recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as Acting Secretary."
Including?
I'm reminded that the Government Accountability Office called this 5 months ago.
After 4 years of Trump, reporters covering immigration/DHS know how to write "DHS secretary is resigning/fired" & "federal court blocks policy" stories SO fast.
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Prior to his current job, Wolf was chief of staff to former DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen. He was integral to the then-secretary as she navigated controversial policy decisions, such as the one to separate parents charged with crossing into the country illegally from their children.
Wolf coordinated Nielsen’s schedule, wrote and edited speeches, briefed her for meetings on immigration policy, and traveled with her for appearances on the border and elsewhere.
NEW: Nearly a dozen immigrants arrested by ICE were kept in solitary confinement for more than 2 months, including 2 people who were isolated for more than 300 days, according to a draft Department of Homeland Security IG report obtained by BuzzFeed News.
Inspectors said there had been no documented review to evaluate the continued solitary confinement and the immigrants were not afforded recreation time for an hour a day, as required.
The inspectors also said the detainees received inadequate medical checks.
From the draft report:
“Moreover, detainees in administrative segregation were restricted to their individual cells for approximately 22 to 23 hours a day without access to the same group activities or opportunities as those in the general population.”
I spoke with James Schwab, a former ICE spokesman, who said that under the Trump admin, ICE was “about being anti-immigrant and every statement we made, every minute that we spent on our statements, were about showing how immigrants have negatively influenced our country.”
“The whole agency changed a lot,” said one former lead ICE detention official who worked under both Obama and Trump.
“It felt uncontrolled.”
She added that many in the agency were elated when Trump came in.
NEW: ICE investigators issued a subpoena this week demanding BuzzFeed News identify its sources — an extraordinary attempt by the government to interfere with a news outlet acting under the protections of the First Amendment.
The subpoena appears to be an escalation of the Trump administration’s efforts to track down the identities of people who provide information to news outlets.
"BuzzFeed News emphatically rejects any requests for information about possible sources and methods of our reporting,” said BuzzFeed News Editor-in-Chief Mark Schoofs.