Changes in Trump's Cabinet: Kirstjen Nielsen will no longer be Secretary of National Security

US President Donald Trump announced Saturday that the Secretary of National Security Kirstjen Nielsen, frontline defender of his government's controversial immigration policy, leave the position.

"National Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will step down and I want to thank him for his services," Trump said on Twitter.

The President added that the Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Kevin McAleenan, would be the Acting Secretary.

Nielsen joined the Trump government in January 2017 as badistant secretary then, John Kelly. When Kelly left for the White House as chief of staff in July 2017, Nielsen looked like her second but two months later, she was back in the Department of Homeland Security, this time as secretary.

There he became the face of the Trump administration's anti-immigration policy, including the criticized practice of separating migrant children from their parents.

It has long been said that Nielsen's relationship with Trump has been difficult. But despite reports that the president was constantly complaining about her performance, she remained faithful.

Last month, he defended Trump 's national emergency declaration to secure funds for one of his flagship projects: the wall on the border between the United States and Mexico.

On April 1, Nielsen delivered a Memorandum to the United States Customs and Border Protection Commissioner (CBP), Kevin McAleenan, detailing the next steps the agency should take to combat "the growing humanitarian and security crisis". on the southern border. "

"The crisis at our border is worsening and the US Department of Homeland Security will do everything in its power to stop it"Nielsen said in a statement. "We will not stand by as long as Congress does not act, so all options are on the table, we will immediately redistribute hundreds of CBP employees to the border to meet to this urgency, and we will ask those who seek to enter the United States wait in Mexico until an immigration court reviews their claims, "he said. declared.

Nielsen ordered Commissioner McAleenan to undertake emergency operations and "immediately increase his temporary badignment of personnel and resources throughout the agency to deal with the influx of migrants ".

In addition, it expanded the Migrants Protection Protocols (MPPs), an initiative aimed at send back foreigners to Mexico to wait during the US immigration process. Thus, he ordered "to return to Mexico hundreds of additional migrants per day above current rates, in accordance with US law and humanitarian obligations".