The Senate on Friday confirmed President Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, the second cabinet pick to receive Senate approval.
John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general who commanded the U.S. military in South America, had one of the smoothest confirmation hearings of any Trump nominee, despite his coming role in implementing the president’s immigration policies. Kelly’s nomination easily passed the Senate in a 88-11 vote. Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, did not vote.
“Naming someone of John Kelly’s stature and integrity to lead the troubled agency is a giant first step towards securing our borders and improving the defense of our homeland,” Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., one of the founding members of the House Freedom Caucus, told the Examiner in December.
Most Senate Democrats also embraced him. “Perhaps this is a love-fest that we’re having with you today,” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., said at one point in the hearing.
He lost some support, however, for refusing to embrace President Obama’s executive orders granting some of the protections of legal status on children brought to the United States illegally.
“I can’t look these kids in the face and offer them any guarantee that this guy won’t deport them, and without that guarantee I can’t support him,” Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who grilled Kelly about the issue during his hearing, said Thursday. “For ethical and moral reasons, we have to honor our promise, the promise made by the United States government to these kids.”
Under Harris’ questioning, Kelly suggested that the children wouldn’t be a top priority for deportation, but he refused to rule it out. “There’s a big spectrum of people who need to be dealt with in terms of deportation,” Kelly said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “I would guess that [DACA applicants] might not be the highest priority.”
