Trump Considering Former ICE Director To Replace Nielsen At DHS

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 22: Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee's Border and Marine Security subcommittee on Capitol Hill on... WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 22: Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee's Border and Marine Security subcommittee on Capitol Hill on May 22, 2018 in Washington, DC. Republican House members are calling for reform to asylum processes. (Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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President Donald Trump is reportedly ready to get rid of his Department of Homeland Security secretary as early as this week and is mulling replacing her with Thomas Homan, a former acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, because he likes his tough-talk on immigration, Politico reported.

According to three people familiar with the process who spoke to Politico, Trump likes Homan’s explosive rhetoric about immigration issues on cable news. Homan once suggested that politicians who oversee sanctuary cities should be charged with “crimes” and has supported Trump’s family separation policies at the border.

“I think it is the law,” Homan told CNN over the summer. “The parents are making a choice. They’re choosing, they are taking it upon themselves to enter illegally and have the children taken away. So if anybody is to blame here, it is the parents who made a decision to break the law.”

Other candidates Trump is reportedly considering: Commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection Kevin McAleenan, Administrator of the Transportation and Security Administration David Pekoske and Maj. Gen. Vincent Coglianese, who runs the Marine Corps Installations Command and whose son is the executive director of the Daily Caller.

Nielsen reportedly expects she’ll be in her post for at least the next month or two, but the atmosphere at the DHS is “predictably not great,” according to an administration official who spoke to Politico.

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