Sunday morning, former secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen busted into the oval office for an impromptu meeting. The meeting was reportedly extremely heated, and by the end of the day, she was asked to resign. To confirm, President Donald Trump tweeted, “Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service.”
Immigration policy has changed substantially since Nielsen began to work under the president. Nielsen was an imperative part of Trump’s radical immigration policy that separated children from their families and placing them in cages. She initially tried to push back at the president, but eventually she had to take blame for the aftermath of the events. Even after Nielsen’s action and defense of Trump’s most restrictive immigration policies, she was not enough for the president.
The president, notably, always felt adrift from Nielsen; he thought that her reforms were too weak. She was appointed near the end of 2017 as her former boss was appointed to be the White House chief of staff (where he was recently fired in the turn of the new year). To many, Nielsen was too strict on border security, but to the commander in chief, she wasn’t strict enough.
According to the New York Times, “The President called Ms. Nielsen at home early in the mornings to demand that she take action to stop migrants from entering the country, including doing things that were clearly illegal, such as blocking all migrants from seeking asylum.”
Trump has rallied behind the numerous amount of families seeking asylum recently at the migrant border. Trump has continually railed about the “chaos” going on at the border within the past week. He has used the border as his main campaign promise as he has vowed to “build the wall” and “close the border.” By dehumanizing these people seeking asylum, his followers see them as big scary men who come to the country only to rape and murder the women and children of America. These beliefs are evident in his quote, “You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people—these are animals.”
The president has consistently campaigned that he would tighten up the border and recently tweeted, “More apprehensions (captures) at the Southern Border than in many years. Border Patrol amazing! Country is FULL! System has been broken for many years. Democrats in Congress must agree to fix loopholes – No Open Borders (Crimes & Drugs). Will Close Southern Border if necessary… Mexico must apprehend all illegals and not let them make the long march up to the United States, or we will have no other choice than to Close the Border and/or institute Tariffs. Our Country is FULL!”
He has suggested a closed border and completely eliminating asylum—or at least constructing a nearly impossible system—for asylum seekers to go through.
With Nielsen sacked, Trump now has the task of handpicking the highest immigration officer in the United States. He will likely pick someone who is as authoritarian at the border as himself. His pick could limit asylum, where people could only apply if they show up to a specific office, despite immigration law specifically stating that you can request asylum regardless of where you enter.
With Trump’s presidency winding down to a close and his re-election campaign looming, he is trying to fulfil his campaign promise in lowering immigration, which he has done drastically, and discontinuing the rise diversity of this smorgasbord of a country. While many people may see this as a good thing, our country was built from immigrants, and isolating ourselves from Central America and other Asylum seekers is not only detrimental for them, but it is detrimental to the advancement of our great country.
By Matthew Villanueva, Staff Writer
villanjv18@bonaventure.edu
