President-elect Donald Trump tapping Gen. John Kelly for DHS secretary

The move comes just after Trump met with former Vice President Al Gore, who is an environmental activist, and said he had “an open mind” about honoring the Paris climate accords. According to Duncan, Gen. Kelly insisted to his fellow soldiers that their mission was to take the city, not “kill a lot of mothers’ sons”.

He would be responsible for delivering some of Trump’s most controversial campaign promises, including building a wall on the border with Mexico, boosting deportations of immigrants in the country illegally and potentially tracking foreign Muslim visitors.

Proponents for hard-line immigration policies praised Kelly as a strong pick to lead Homeland Security.

Kelly, 66, is the former head of the US military’s Southern Command. As the head of United States Southern Command, Kelly was in charge of the military jail at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He oversaw Guantanamo Bay. “Trump’s election was all that was important to me”.

Kelly reportedly caught Trump’s attention based on a 2015 testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in which he said the government was “overlooking a significant security threat” on the southwest border from gangs and smugglers. And U.S. Customs and Border Protection, also part of DHS, is likely to come under increased pressure in the Trump administration to better secure the Southwest border. He is the third general joining the Trump administration, having been preceded by Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who will serve as national security advisor, and Marine Gen. James Mattis, who will serve as secretary of defense.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said of Trump, “For a guy who got four or five deferments from the draft, he seems pretty impressed with the military”.

Despite making regular remarks on the campaign trail disparaging the nation’s generals, Trump has long shown an affinity for them.

“He’s forming a pickup team on the fly. No – not any more than you can have a Cabinet full of lawyers or a Cabinet full of business people or whatever”, said Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Tex.

Mr Kelly, who stepped down after a 45-year military career, is the highest-ranking military officer to lose a child in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Hill Marine general predicts lower combat standards for women: Marine Gen. John Kelly on Friday said he fe.

But Kelly has also expressed a more understanding approach than Trump’s to dealing with an influx of immigrant arrivals at the southwest border from Central America. It has a reputation for emphasizing “soft power” over hard military might, and gets deeply involved in issues such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, as well as programs to train local militaries. “There’s been a securitization of migration that is out of whack with reality”, said Sharry.

Kelly is a moderate pick compared to some of the other potential DHS candidates. In this role, Gen. Kelly will take the helm of the 22 entities that make up the DHS, a mammoth agency of more than 230,000 people tasked with safeguarding Americans.

“There are no innocent men down there”, Kelly said of Guantanamo in a January interview with the Military Times newspaper.

Trump is planning to formally select Kelly next week, along with his remaining national security positions, according to The New York Times.