Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, is leaving her position, President Trump announced on Sunday, ending a tumultuous tenure in charge of the border security agency that had at times made her the target of the president’s criticism.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2019
“I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside,” Ms. Nielsen said in a letter to the president. “I hope that the next secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts in fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure America’s borders and which have contributed to discord in our nation’s discourse.”
The move comes just two days after Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly expressed anger at a rise in migrants at the southwestern border, withdrew his nominee to run Immigration and Customs Enforcement because he wanted the agency to go in a “tougher” direction. The president said in a tweet that Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, will be the acting replacement for Ms. Nielsen, who took over the agency in late 2017.
The decision to replace Ms. Nielsen comes as little surprise.
She was long expected to be fired as Mr. Trump’s dissatisfaction grew over an increase of migrants illegally entering the United States at the southwestern border. Last May — six months after taking over at the department — The New York Times reported that Ms. Nielsen had drafted a resignation letter after being berated for what the president called her failure to help stop illegal immigration.
Mr. Trump and Stephen Miller, his top immigration adviser, have privately but regularly complained about Ms. Nielsen. They blamed her for a rise in migrants entering the United States and not finding more creative ways to secure the border.
She also lost a powerful protector when John F. Kelly, her mentor, left his job as White House chief of staff at the beginning of the year. Mr. Kelly was the Trump administration’s first homeland security secretary and lobbied for Ms. Nielsen to replace him.
Multiple White House officials said she had grown deeply paranoid in recent months, after numerous stories about her job being on the line. She also had supported the ICE nominee Mr. Trump withdrew, Ronald D. Vitiello, and her support for him was described as problematic for her with the president.
So was her recent trip overseas as the border situation engulfed news accounts.
Mr. Trump enjoyed Ms. Nielsen’s television appearances, administration aides said. But despite several stories about how much better her relationship with Mr. Trump was, Ms. Nielsen never learned how to manage him, people familiar with their discussions said. He often felt lectured to by Ms. Nielsen, the people familiar with the discussions said.
And his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was not an admirer of Ms. Nielsen, several administration officials said. That came to a head recently as Mr. Kushner had inserted himself into immigration discussions.
In her letter resigning as secretary of homeland security, Kirstjen Nielsen wrote: “We have taken unprecedented action to protect Americans. We have implemented historic efforts to defend our borders, combat illegal immigration, obstruct the inflow of drugs, and uphold our laws and values.”
People close to Ms. Nielsen said she was legally constrained from being more aggressive in halting migrants. They also noted that she supported many of the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies, including ending the temporary protected status program that granted residency and work permits for thousands of people fleeing countries crippled by natural disasters or war.
Her most enduring legacy as secretary was carrying out the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy at the southwestern border, which initially resulted in the separation of thousands of migrant children from their families.
“If you are a parent or you are a single person or you happen to have a family, if you cross between the ports of entry, we will refer you for prosecution,” Ms. Nielsen said during a congressional hearing last year. “You have broken U.S. law.”
An intense backlash ensued and, as it turned out, the Department of Homeland Security was unprepared to deal with separating nearly 3,000 children from their parents.
Mr. Trump eventually moved to halt the family separations, though the government struggled in some cases to reunite those it had already separated.
The Department of Homeland Security, which has a budget of more than $40 billion and more than 240,000 employees, is an amalgam of 22 government agencies that was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It is responsible for everything from protecting the nation from cyberattacks to responding to natural disasters.
At 46, Ms. Nielsen was the youngest person to lead the sprawling department, and an unlikely choice for the job.
In the months immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, she helped set up the Transportation Security Administration, now an agency within the department. She also worked as a special assistant to President George W. Bush on natural disaster response while serving on the White House Homeland Security Council.
Ms. Nielsen’s work for Mr. Bush reportedly caused Mr. Trump to view her with suspicion. But after his surprise victory in 2016, Ms. Nielsen volunteered for the president’s transition team, where she helped prepare Mr. Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, for his confirmation hearings.
Ms. Nielsen was expected to become under secretary for the department’s National Protection and Programs Directorate, responsible for the federal government’s cyberdefenses. But as secretary, Mr. Kelly named Ms. Nielsen his chief of staff.
When Mr. Trump moved Mr. Kelly to the White House in July 2017, Ms. Nielsen moved with him. As the principal deputy chief of staff, she enforced Mr. Kelly’s attempts to regulate access to Mr. Trump in the Oval Office, including the president’s schedule — irritating White House staff members, who complained she was uncompromising.
Mr. Kelly later backed Ms. Nielsen to succeed him at the Homeland Security Department, though she was criticized as too inexperienced for the job by Democrats and anti-immigration groups. Mr. Trump, however, said she was “ready on Day 1.”
“There will be no on-the-job training for Kirstjen,” Mr. Trump said in October 2017, announcing her nomination for the post.
But by the following spring, Ms. Nielsen was telling associates she was miserable in the job. She drafted the resignation letter — but did not immediately submit it — after Mr. Trump scolded her over immigration during a cabinet meeting.
Ms. Nielsen did not deny the episode, and later said Mr. Trump was “rightly frustrated that existing loopholes and the lack of congressional action have prevented this administration from fully securing the border.”
A department spokesman disputed at the time that she was close to resigning.
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