US Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen resigns amid Trump anger over border

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (left) looks on in the Rose Garden after the president met with US Congressional leaders about the government shutdown and border security at the White House in Washington - Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters): US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who oversaw President Donald Trump’s bitterly contested immigration policies during her tumultuous 16-month tenure, resigned on Sunday amid a surge in the number of migrants at the border with Mexico.

A senior administration official said Trump asked for Nielsen’s resignation and she gave it.

Trump, who has recently expressed growing anger about the situation at the border, said on Twitter: “Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service.”

In another tweet, Trump said US Customs and Border Protection current Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would become acting DHS secretary.

Nielsen, 46, had been DHS secretary since December 2017.

Her departure had been repeatedly rumoured over the past year, particularly after a wave of anger over the administration’s 2018 family separation policy at the border with Mexico and most recently as US border officials estimated that 100,000 migrants were apprehended at the southern border in March, the highest level in a decade.

Another senior administration official said Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, after a blow-up with Nielsen late last year, also recommended to Trump that she should go.