Trump fires U.S. Secret Service chief in another high-level ouster

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump is removing the
director of the U.S. Secret Service, the agency that provides
protection for him and other top U.S. officials, the White House
said on Monday, a day after the ouster of Homeland Security
Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

The dismissal of Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles
comes amid major leadership changes at the sprawling Department of
Homeland Security. The Secret Service director reports to the
Homeland Security secretary.

The first sign of the overhaul came late on Thursday, when Trump
abruptly pulled his nomination of Ron Vitiello as director of U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of DHS. Trump described
that move as part of a policy change “going in a tougher
direction.”

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said James Murray, a
career Secret Service agent, will take over the Secret Service in
May.

A senior administration official said Trump asked for Nielsen’s
resignation when the two met at the White House on Sunday. Trump
also announced that Kevin McAleenan, the U.S. Customs and Border
Protection commissioner, would become acting DHS secretary.

One official described the firings to CNN as “a near-systematic
purge” at the Department of Homeland Security. Fox News cited
sources as saying Alles’ removal was part of a transition in
leadership at DHS.

LONG LIST OF DEPARTURES
The removal of Alles marked the latest in a long line of firings
and resignations of senior officials in the Trump administration, a
list that has included the secretaries of state, defence, homeland
security, interior, veterans affairs and health and human services,
the attorney general and numerous senior White House aides.

Trump, seeking re-election in 2020, has taken a hard line
towards immigration since becoming president in January 2017, and
the issue may be a central theme in next year’s race.

Nielsen, who oversaw Trump’s bitterly contested immigration
policies during her tumultuous 16-month tenure, resigned amid a
surge in the number of migrants at the border with Mexico.

Her departure had been long rumoured particularly after
criticism of the administration’s 2018 family separation policy at
the border with Mexico and as U.S. border officials estimated that
100,000 migrants were apprehended at the southern border in March,
the highest level in a decade. Trump was so frustrated about the
increase that he announced he would cut off U.S. aid to Guatemala,
Honduras and El Salvador.

Alles, appointed to the post by Trump in April 2017, previously
held a senior job at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency
and served 35 years in the U.S. Marine Corps before retiring as a
major general in 2011.

The Secret Service is responsible for protecting senior U.S.
officials including the president and vice president, former
presidents and visiting heads of state. The agency also is charged
with enforcing counterfeiting laws and safeguarding the payment and
financial systems of the United States.

CNN reported that Trump in recent weeks empowered his hard-line
conservative aide Stephen Miller to lead the administration’s
border policies and quoted the official as saying Miller’s plans
amount to a wholesale decapitation of the Department of Homeland
Security’s leadership.

L. Francis Cissna, director of the U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services agency, and department General Counsel John
Mitnick also are expected to be out of their jobs soon, CNN
reported.

The Secret Service also came under scrutiny last week after a
Chinese woman carrying electronic devices bluffed her way through
security checks at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Additional reporting by Makini
Brice and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Will Dunham