President Trump Selects Mark Morgan to Lead ICE: NPR

President Trump has named Mark Morgan, a former FBI agent and Obama administration veteran, new head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The President announced the selection of Morgan in a tweet Sunday, writing: "I am pleased to inform all those who believe in a strong, fair and solid immigration policy that Mark Morgan will join the Trump administration at the head of our workers and ICE workers Mark is a true American believer and patriot. "

Morgan served as chief of the Border Patrol during the last months of the Obama administration, but he has turned out to be a strong supporter of the president's immigration policy. Morgan has publicly supported President Trump's calls for the construction of a border wall, as well as his decision to declare a national emergency to fund its construction.

Morgan also voiced support for sending migrants taken to sanctuary towns by crossing the border.

"I went there," Morgan said last month in an interview with Fox News. "The Border Patrol, ICE, their facilities are overwhelmed, religious organizations and other non-governmental organizations are overburdened, they have no choice, they will have to start evicting these people, should not we somehow to share the burden across the country? "

Morgan's selection, which would require confirmation from the Senate, is part of a wave of reshuffling within the administration as the president seeks to implement tougher policies along the border. In recent weeks, several senior immigration officials have left the administration, including the former Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen. In April, the president also removed his previous ICE candidate, Ronald Vitiello, claiming that he wanted the agency to go in a "harder" direction.

A few days after withdrawing Vitiello's candidacy, Trump tweeted that Morgan had sent him a message of support. The President wrote that Morgan had told him to "stay the course".

In a statement to NPR, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan praised Morgan's choice.

"Mark Morgan is a career civil servant who has served his country for decades in the United States Marine Corps, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Border Patrol," McAleenan said. "His service record is needed to deal with the crisis at the border and support the men and women of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.The depth of his experience will be an asset to the department and I look forward to to work with him. "

If confirmed, Morgan would be responsible for leading an increasingly stressful agency. In March, the number of apprehended migrants at the border climbed to about 100,000, the highest monthly total in more than 10 years.