Trump to tap retired general John Kelly for Homeland Security secretary

Kelly has spoken of the need for strong security on the U.S. -Mexico border, but also has shown some empathy when speaking about why migrants choose to flee their home countries in the first place. “The Obama administration too often turned a blind eye to Iranian activities on US soil, and even downplayed an Iranian terror plot to launch an attack in Washington, D.C. Clearly the Trump administration is signaling that it will do exactly the opposite, and will target Iranian aggression across all areas of national security”. General Mattis is the living embodiment of the Marine Corps motto, ‘Semper Fidelis, ‘ always faithful, and the American people are fortunate that a man of his character and integrity will now be the civilian leader atop the Department of Defense.

Gen. Kelly’s views on immigration and tightening the border were likely to have appealed to Mr. Trump.

At the Department of Homeland Security, which was created after the September 11 terrorist attacks, Kelly would oversee an array of agencies including the Secret Service, Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Customs and Border Protection.

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to secure the borders.

Kelly is the second retired general to be nominated for Trump’s Cabinet. Kobach has done legal work for the group in the past.

In that role, General Kelly grappled with issues relating to the worldwide illicit drug trade and the flow of narcotics, including heroin and cocaine, from countries in the Southern Hemisphere to markets in the United States.

Kelly and Mattis served together in the same unit in Iraq, along with the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joe Dunford, the military’s top-ranking officer. “If the answer to that is … yes, then do it”, Kelly told reporters earlier this year. -Mexican border represents a national security threat. The danger is that the surge itself provides cover for people who do threaten the security of the nation.

Such sentiments may have endeared him to Trump, who warned repeatedly during his presidential campaign of dangers from immigration, and pledged to build a wall along the border and make Mexico pay for it. Kelly has also defended the force-feedings of those who hunger-strike there as humane.

In addition to dramatic increases in refugee admissions, the number of immigrants from countries known to harbor terrorists has steadily risen in recent years.

“He had decided it was. important to be where he was that morning in the Sangin River Valley, Afghanistan, to be doing what he was doing that morning with his Marines and his Navy docs that he loved so much and led so well”, Kelly said. He is the most senior military officer to lose a child in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.

If confirmed, Kelly will become the first member of the military to lead the department, created in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Immigration enforcement is a familiar issue for Kelly. That mission was largely ignored under President George W. Bush and actively undermined under President Obama.

President-elect Donald Trump is set to nominate the former four-star general to head the agency, which oversees border security, USA media reported.

Secondly, he wants DHS agencies to be tougher in screening legal immigrants to prevent the entrance of those who could pose real threats as Islamic extremists.