Two directors of agencies within the Homeland Security Department have emerged in recent conversations with current and former senior DHS officials as the most likely people to succeed Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen if she is terminated by President Trump in coming weeks.
The names of David Pekoske, the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, and Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, were the first to be cited by a handful of sources familiar with talks about what to do if Nielsen is forced out after 11 months on the job.
“Pekoske,” one former high-level DHS official said Wednesday, “I always found him to be a good listener — understands the importance of integrating agencies of DHS.”
“He’s very knowledgeable, very smart, great leadership skills, has that ability to problem-solve,” the official said. “The last administration with TSA, with wait times, they were all over the place. This guy’s come in and really put some structure forward.”
A second former senior official at DHS was quick to mention Pekoske and said he has the department knowledge and experience that others, including Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi or Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, lack despite having personal relationships with Trump. Both Bondi and Kobach were floated as potential DHS secretary candidates after John Kelly left for the White House last year.
[Trump: ‘Fake news media goes crazy’ over administration changes]
A DHS spokesman dismissed speculation that Nielsen would soon be forced out.
“The Secretary is honored to lead the men and women of DHS and is committed to implementing the President’s security-focused agenda to protect Americans from all threats and will continue to do so,” DHS press secretary Tyler Houlton told the Washington Examiner.
Pekoske, 63, concluded 33 years in the military in 2010 as the vice commandant of the Coast Guard under Commandant Thad Allen. The guard is the only one of the five military branches that is under DHS instead of the Defense Department because its personnel work closely with U.S. Customs and Border Protection on maritime security operations.
In separate phone calls, the officials also all named McAleenan. Although the 47-year-old CBP chief has less experience than Pekoske, he was also described as level-headed and capable of jumping from his mostly immigration-related job to overseeing 240,000 employees in the department.
“Kevin’s brilliant,” the second former senior DHS official said.
McAleenan’s background would likely be more in line with Trump’s desire for a department that is heavily focused on border and immigration issues, the ex-official said.
DHS does not have a confirmed deputy secretary that could immediately take over in an acting capacity unlike when Kelly left last summer and went to work at the White House as chief of staff.
A current top DHS official said it would be critical to get someone who is very familiar with how the department operates at the helm if Nielsen is fired or suddenly resigns.
Pekoske and McAleenen are career employees who have already made it through Senate confirmation votes with bipartisan support, an indication they could once again sail through the process.
Pekoske was confirmed in August 2017 and McAleenan in May.
But even if one of the agency heads is tapped to replace Nielsen, the Trump administration’s challenges implementing its immigration agenda will not suddenly disappear.
“The president’s frustrated with the system, not with necessarily who’s running homeland security. He doesn’t like the laws that are written now,” said the second former official who spoke with the Washington Examiner. “There’s only so much that Kirstjen or anyone else in that position can do. I don’t know how much putting somebody else in that position is going to satisfy his desires.”
One name that is being ruled out is Thomas Homan, the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who retired six months ago.
One official who said the two had lunch “three days ago,” said Homan is “pretty content doing his Fox News thing” and doesn’t see him trying to get back in DHS, much less in an even higher role.
That official also said Homan’s tell-it-like-it-is persona appeals to Trump, but the department may be better led by the more introspective McAleenan and Pekoske.
Trump’s border wall is still short more than $20 billion in funding from Congress. While a secretary is not responsible for funding the project, he or she would be the leading lobbyist to Congress to bring Trump’s plan to fruition.
While Trump touted plans to secure the border as a candidate, the White House has never shared a cohesive plan that was about anything more than just infrastructure and personnel, both of which it hasn’t even achieved.
“It’s been a bunch of one-offs,” the first former official said, citing the travel ban, family separations as a result of the zero tolerance immigration policy, and April troop deployment to prepare for a migrant caravan from Central America.
Apprehensions of people who have illegally entered the country was higher in fiscal 2018 than in some years during the Obama administration.
Some officials said part of the next secretary’s agenda ought to include rolling out a comprehensive plan to deal with a variety of homeland security issues, but even with new leadership, change will take time even though Trump wants a quick fix.
“He wants an easy way. There’s no easy way here. We cannot apprehend our way out of this because they’re just going to keep coming,” the first ex-official said. “This is really in many ways just a little piece of what is going to take place in this country. Someday we’re going to say, ‘We didn’t have it that bad … this is just the beginning — the tip of the iceberg.”
