Heinrich Votes Against Confirmation of Chad Wolf, Trump’s Pick As Next Acting DHS Secretary

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 13, 2019) – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) issued the following statement after voting against the confirmation of Chad Wolf to serve as Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy, and Planning at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Wolf is widely expected to be appointed Acting DHS Secretary after his confirmation as Under Secretary.

“Because of the way the Trump administration functions—or fails to function—today’s vote was actually a vote to confirm Chad Wolf to a position so the president can then promote him to Acting Homeland Security Secretary, where he will oversee the administration’s immigration policies.

“Mr. Wolf played a central role in authoring and implementing President Trump’s directive to take migrant children from their parents and was likely involved in more of the administration’s inhumane and ineffective immigration policies.

“Under those policies, thousands of children as young as infants and toddlers arriving at our nation’s southern border have been separated from their families. Migrant families and children have been held in appalling, overcrowded, prison-like immigrant detention facilities like those in Clint, Texas. The administration has also throttled the legal ports of entry where refugees are required under law to present themselves for asylum, resulting in huge groups going instead to remote and more dangerous stretches of the border. We have seen the president go so far as shutting down the government and stealing billions of dollars of congressionally appropriated funds from the military to pay for his wasteful and ineffective border wall. And President Trump’s decision to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program—or DACA—has thrown Dreamers across the country deep into fear and uncertainty.

“President Trump has played politics with the lives of Dreamers, asylum seekers, and refugees. Now the Senate has confirmed someone who will simply rubberstamp the continued failures of this administration. This is a grave departure from what America truly stands for as a nation built by many generations of immigrants.”