Trump shake-up goes beyond Kirstjen Nielsen's exit

Departing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen often had to explain to Donald Trump the legal limits of what he wanted to do. Photo / AP

US President Donald Trump and White House allies pressing for a harder line on immigration sped up their campaign for a new broom at Homeland Security with a mission far wider than the departure of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

Trump is considering separating migrant families at the border again, sources say.

The dismantling of the US Government's immigration leadership is being orchestrated by adviser Stephen Miller, the impetus behind some of Trump's most controversial policies.

Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection, will take over from Nielsen on an acting basis. McAleenan had impressed Trump's inner circle, specifically son-in-law Jared Kushner.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan. Photo / AP

The shake-up is a result of Trump's frustration with the increasing number of migrants at the border and his diminishing options for action. A new team is likely to face the same obstacles. The migrant tally reached more than 100,000 in March, border officials said, the highest tally in 12 years. Court challenges, immigration laws and Trump's advisers have blocked several of his proposals.

The head of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Francis Cissna, and Homeland Security General Counsel John Mitnick are expected to be pushed out. Last week the Administration withdrew the nomination of Ron Vitiello to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Other civil servants in agency posts are also on the chopping block.

The director of the Secret Service is also being forced out, but that is unrelated to the other upheaval.

Nielsen often had to explain to Trump the legal limits of what he wanted to do.

Departing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen often had to explain to Donald Trump the legal limits of what he wanted to do. Photo / AP

She did months of diplomatic work with Central America and Mexico and brokered an arrangement in which asylum seekers were to wait in Mexico for their asylum cases to play out. She moved to abandon long-standing regulations that dictate how long children are allowed to be held in immigration detention and was working to find space to detain all families who cross the border. She limited what public benefits migrants can receive and put regulations in place to circumvent immigration law and deny asylum to anyone caught crossing the border illegally.

And she took ownership of the separation of families at the border.

Nearly everything has been challenged or watered down by the courts. A judge yesterday blocked the Administration from forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico.

Nielsen resigned in part because she hadn't been informed about the Vitiello decision. She was also pushing back at an effort to house a "border tsar" within Homeland Security, sources said.

- AP