

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the face of the Trump administration’s inhumane family separation policy, resigned from her position on Sunday. Under Nielsen, the department separated thousands of families crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without documentation (the exact number is unknown because the government failed to track separated families). Nielsen falsely said that the United States had no policy for separating families, and later blamed the deaths of migrant children in Customs Border Patrol custody on their parents for “taking a dangerous journey north.”
She obviously won’t be missed, but in the greater context at the White House, her departure suggests there might be still worse to come. As multiple outlets have reported, Stephen Miller, the anti-immigration and rightwing extremist who designed the Muslim ban, is now exercising more influence over the country’s policy at the Southern border. Miller, in fact, reportedly pushed for Nielsen’s ouster and has been behind other recent and coming changes.
Days before Nielsen’s resignation, Trump pulled his nomination of Ron Vitiello to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying: “We want to go in a tougher direction.” Miller “directly lobbied Trump to pull the nomination,” according to two White House officials, critical that Vitiello “was not fully in favor of closing the southern border, as Trump has threatened to do in recent days.”
CNN reports on what one official calls the “near-systematic purge” that may be coming:
Trump administration officials say that Miller, who played key a role in Nielsen’s ouster, wants the President to dismiss the director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Lee Cissna, and the department’s general counsel, John Mitnick. United States Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles, is also being removed from his position, multiple administration officials tell CNN.
“There is a near-systematic purge happening at the nation’s second-largest national security agency,” this official says.
According to one Trump administration official, ousting Nielsen and Vitiello, and potentially others, is just the initial phase of a “tougher” immigration plan. “This is the beginning of the true Stephen Miller-ification of this administration,” one Trump administration official told Buzz Feed News. “There are other administration officials with immigration responsibilities that are viewed as not carrying their weight… and there is an increasing likelihood that they’ll suffer the same fate as Nielsen and Vitiello.”